


The Cells: Pearl Returns to Homeworld

by soundlessAsdots



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-10 20:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 42,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8938138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soundlessAsdots/pseuds/soundlessAsdots
Summary: Pearl must return to Homeworld to rescue Mystery Girl after she is mistaken as Rose Quartz by Yellow Diamond.





	1. Pizza and Sand

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter of many.

Pearl never understood the concept of pizza. It was merely goop that one chewed into more goop, and then ingested so it could turn into...she did not want to think about it.  
  
Amethyst and Steven would shovel the pizza goop into their mouths so fast like there was about to be a worldwide food shortage. This was ridiculous. Food shortages were uncommon in this part of the world ever since humans invented intensive crop farming.  
  
Sheena didn’t eat pizza like that. She took small bites. It was simply adorable. She would wipe her red lips after several nibbles.  
  
Pearl rested on her elbows on the table of their booth at Fish Pizza and admired Sheena’s face. Unlike gems, she had some “flaws.” But theses flaws just added layers to her. The imperfections, like for example, Sheena’s freckles, made her seem unique. The scar above Sheena’s left eyebrow told a story.  
  
Pearl never felt unique in that way. She wondered if this is how Rose first came to love humans.  
  
“I mean, what if everything is made of light?” Sheena asked Pearl. “Just asking, because, you know, you really seem to like talking about light.”  
  
Pearl smiled. She was made of light. Pearl thought about how narcissistic she had been. “Light is made up of photons, which is energy. And everything is made up of energy. So, maybe?” Pearl said. She did not want to correct Sheena by nitpicking.  
  
“You sure you don’t want pizza?”  
  
“I’m okay. Not hungry.” She took a sip of her tea. Eventually, Pearl knew she would have to eat food. It was becoming awkward not ordering anything. She tried pretending to be an anthropologist and sample some pie, but she chickened out. Pearl would do it though. Eating an entire meal with Sheena would solidify her commitment to...this. Pearl didn’t know exactly what it, their relationship, was.  
  
“So, I was thinking,” Sheena said as drew circles on Pearl’s elbow lightly with her finger. “I want you to come over, so I can make you dinner.” She bit the side of her bottom lip, which Pearl found to be enticing.  
  
“Yeah?” Pearl asked, blushing blue and forgetting to use correct grammar.  
  
“Yeah,” Sheena said letting out a deep breath, nodding.  
  
“That sounds--” Before Pearl could continue the sentence, a large spacecraft emerged from the sky. The wind outside howled.  
  
Three Rubies hopped out of the hatch. One of them had a ruby for an eye. Pearl stood to her feet, panicked. The “Eyeball,” as Steven nicknamed her, must have somehow made it back to Homeworld.  
  
“What the hell was that?” Sheena asked as she looked out the window to the pedestrians panicking, running in all directions on the boardwalk.  
  
“I have to go,” Pearl said.  
  
“We still on for dinner?”  
  
“With food?” Pearl asked.  
  
“I mean, that’s usually what dinner entails.”  
  
Pearl shuffled back and forth on her feet. She didn’t want to leave Sheena without an answer, but she also felt...strange about eating actual food at dinner. She would have to shapeshift a digestive system. She hated shapeshifting.  
  
“When do you normally like to eat dinner?”  
  
“Eight on Saturday?”  
  
“Saturday?” Pearl asked.  
  
“Are you busy on Saturday?”  
  
“No..I don’t think so. Okay. Saturday.” Pearl nodded. She smiled at Sheena and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “I will be there on Sat-ur-day.”  
  
Pearl darted out of Fish Pizza. Her mind raced between the logical concept and need for days of the week and if Yellow Diamond was actually coming to Earth.  
  
That couldn’t happen. Steven would be...She shook her head. She didn’t want to think about it.  
  
She would be shattered after a sham trial. There was also the possibility she would have a worse fate than shattering. She would rather be shattered than be punished in other ways she shuttered thinking about. She had accepted this as her possible fate thousands of years ago. She knew it the moment she left Homeworld with Rose.  
  
When she arrived at the beach, Amethyst was already taking on two of the rubies, while Steven and Garnet cornered Eyeball.  
  
“Please state your purpose,” Garnet said. “Do so now or I will be forced to poof you.”  
  
“I’d like to see you try,” Eyeball said with a smirk.  
  
“Why did she say it like that?” Steven asked.  
  
“Like how?” Eyeball asked, “I said it regular.”  
  
“No you didn’t,” Steven said, “You were like smirking like you had a secret.”  
  
"Well maybe I do have a secret! Maybe I was insulted when you--you gave me what I thought to be the greatest day of my life -- the day I met Jasper and sat on her lap and it was all a scam!”  
  
“Oh, no,” Garnet said as she looked up to the hatch of the hand-shaped spaceship. She looked over at Amethyst, panicked.  
  
“What did you see, Garnet?” Amethyst said as she had the two other rubies in a headlock.  
  
Yellow Diamond and her pearl appeared from the hatch of the ship.  
  
Garnet stood in front of Steven and said, "Steven, you need to leave the beach.”  
  
“I’m okay,” Steven said, “I-I fought Jasper, remember?”  
  
“She isn’t Jasper!” Garnet said, “She’s much-much....worse, stronger, more powerful.”  
  
Pearl ran up to the edge of the sea at the beach, next to Garnet and Steven.  
  
“P!” Amethyst yelled.  
  
Pearl summoned her weapon and stood next to Garnet.  
  
“Are you okay, Steven?” Pearl asked.  
  
He nodded.  
  
“Leave. Now,” Pearl said to Yellow Diamond with a low, demanding voice. She knew what was coming next; the cruel laugh.  
  
“Pearl,” Yellow Diamond said, with the predicable cruel laugh. “342AC. Naturally Cultured. Shape, Near Round. Color, White Iridescent. Luster, Excellent. Owner--”  
  
“Nobody!” Pearl yelled, interrupting Yellow Diamond.  
  
“Now, we both know that’s untrue,” Yellow Diamond said, “I also think we both know why I am here. Hand over Rose Quartz so she can be properly prosecuted for treason and I will be sure you gems are properly taken care of at the Diamond Authority Cells instead of facing the penalty of shattering.”  
  
“Rose Quartz is not here,” Pearl said, clearing her throat. The Crystal Gems did not properly prepare for this. Steven needed to leave. She had to get Steven out of here. She thought about the warp pad. Maybe she could sneak him off. "We are the Crystal Gems!" Pearl yelled, "The protectors of Earth and--"  
  
“Look, Pearl!” Yellow Pearl said, stepping in front of Yellow Diamond, “For star’s sake, just hand over Rose Quartz and My Diamond will make sure you--also the two...three...four? Who is this human boy? How many fugitives are you harboring on this horrible planet?”  
  
"What’s it to you?” Amethyst asked.  
  
“ _Amethyst_.” Pearl said with clenched teeth. “Yellow Diamond, Rose Quartz is...gone. Please just let’s talk about this rationally because--”  
  
“Because you’re harboring her in that human, ‘Piz-za,’ Shop?” Yellow Pearl asked. She gestured over to the window of Fish Pizza. Sheena was staring out the window.  
  
“That’s not Rose,” Pearl said, panicking. Her eyes widened, paranoid. Her stomach dropped. She forgot she shapeshifted a stomach for tea.  
  
“Well, she sure looks a lot like Rose,” Yellow Pearl said.  
  
“She’s Pearl’s booty call,” Amethyst said.  
  
Without missing a beat, Yellow Diamond deadpanned, “So It’s Rose Quartz.”  
  
“Yellow Diamond thanks you puny, defective Amethyst,” Yellow Pearl said.  
  
“I’m not defective...” Amethyst said.  
  
“She’s not Ro-” before Pearl could finish her sentence, the large, hand shaped spaceship floated toward Fish Pizza.  
  
Pearl exchanged looks with Garnet.  
  
“I’ll protect Steven,” Garnet said. She grabbed him underneath her arm.  
  
“Why aren’t we helping Pearl?” Steven asked, “We should-should fuse or--”  
  
“Now’s not the time for all of us to Fuse with you for the first time,” Garnet said. “I need to get you out of here, then we can fuse into Alexandrite. Don’t worry, Steven. Pearl knows how to form a distraction.”  
  
Pearl jumped into the air, with the intent to hover over there. As she approached the ship, Pearl heard Garnet yell out for her to watch out.  
  
From the hand-shaped ship, Yellow Diamond directed an electromagnetic pulse of lightening at Pearl, who used her magic to bend the sand of the beach upward and into a thin wall of petrified lightening.  
  
Pearl skidded on her knees in the sand. She rested her shoulder against the petrified lightening. She summoned a second spear, charged around the wall of jagged, rock-hard stand, and bent the sand to form delicate, basically useless walls of petrified lightening as Yellow Diamond shot electromagnetic blasts at Pearl.  
  
Pearl didn’t have a better plan than this. She would have to distract Yellow Diamond with the walls of sand until Garnet got Steven to safety and Amethyst poofed the Rubies.  
  
As Pearl hid behind one of the stronger walls of petrified lightening walls, she saw Garnet and Amethyst approaching. They must have sent Steven off with Lion. Hopefully to Rose’s Room. As long as he was somewhere safe.  
  
She ran towards them. Once they touched, they could fuse.  
  
But then Pearl felt like she hit an invisible wall. Something was jerking her in the opposite direction. She looked behind her and saw that a robot, some sort of mechanical device was pulling the tail to her bow in the direction of Yellow Diamond’s spaceship.  
  
Suddenly her body was being held high in the air by Yellow Diamond. Yellow Diamond’s hand held Pearl’s arms locked together, squishing, forcing Pearl’s arms into, where her rib cage would be.  
  
“Having deja vu, Pearl?” Yellow Diamond asked. “Do you recall the last time you were in this position? A diamond holding you up above the ground, about to poof you, then shatter your gem into oblivion?”  
  
Pearl didn’t answer. She knew exactly what Yellow Diamond was referring to.  
  
“My Pearl and the rubies have already captured your precious Rose Quartz. She’s not here to save you now, Pearl. She barely put up a fight.”  
  
“That’s because she’s not Rose,” Pearl said. She could feel her light starting to break. “She’s a human. She only looks like--”  
  
“Rose Quartz a human? Don’t give me this crap, Pearl.” Yellow Diamond said, squeezing Pearl’s body harder, “I’m going to do what we should have done millenniums ago.”  
  
Then Pearl felt her light dissipate into her gem. She was poofed.


	2. The Barn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Crystal Gems debate what to do.

Amethyst sat on the dirty barn floor, staring at the ship they stole previously from the Rubies. She remembered the first time she saw Pearl poof a corrupted gem. It was Amethyst’s first mission after Rose found her. Pearl summoned her weapon and took down a giant monster with some swift dodges and a thrown spear. Pearl seemed like she always knew what to do. No gem or monster was a match for Pearl while Rose was watching. For a while Amethyst wore her hair short like Pearl. 

 

Now she was gone; probably forever. Amethyst couldn’t handle losing someone again. Losing Rose was like being shattered. 

 

“But Garnet--” 

 

“No,” Garnet said. She leaned back in her chair. “Pearl will be fine.” 

 

“Pearl just got kidnapped by a ten foot gem and taken to a civilization that is like a thousand times more technologically advanced than us. She is not fine!” Amethyst said jumping up to her feet. Garnet was being ridiculous, cold and uncaring. Amethyst hated to admit this to herself, but if Ruby or Sapphire had been taken, they would be chasing after Yellow Diamond’s ship this very second. 

 

“This was clearly a trap.” Garnet said. “Eyepatch Ruby thinks Steven is Rose. There is no way they would have mistaken Sheena as Rose since Steven was right there.” 

 

“It’s true,” Steven said sighing, “but I’m with Amethyst. We have to do something!” 

 

“Pearl would want us to stay here. If we all go to save Pearl on Homeworld, then the planet will be vulnerable. We are the only ones protecting it. She would want us to stay here. It’s been her life’s work and I’m not going to risk it by going on a wild goose chase that’s clearly a trap,” Garnet said. 

 

“Besides,” Peridot said, “They’re probably on Homeworld by now. We’d be snatched up and sent to The Cells before we even landed on the planet.” 

 

“What are The Cells?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“It’s an impenetrable prison made out of the only organic substance that can trap light,” Peridot said. “No one’s escaped in eight thousand years.” 

 

“See?” Garnet said. “We stay here. Final decision.” 

 

“I feel like you don’t even care Pearl is gone!” Amethyst yelled. 

 

“Pearl will be fine,” Garnet nodded. She appeared to be a bit unsure as she sucked on her bottom lip. “We’re staying here. No intergalactic space missions. Got it?” 

 

“Okay,” Steven said. 

 

“Fine,” Amethyst mumbled. 

 

“Will we see her again?” Steven asked. 

 

“I don’t know,” Garnet said, her voice wavering. 

 

“What about the human?” Amethyst asked. “They like starve after ten days of no food.” 

 

“Millions of humans are more important than just one.” 

 

“That’s morbid!” Amethyst said. She felt like a hippocrite. She was supposed to be protecting all humans, not just a few select million. 

 

“I’m sorry,” Garnet said, “but we need to stay here.” 

 

Garnet left the barn as Amethyst, Steven and Peridot joined Lapis to watch a _Camp Pining Hearts_ revival special on Netflix. Steven looked as if he tried to hold back tears, which was unusual for him. He always cried when he needed to. It was what Amethyst admired about him. He could express pain so well, while she seemed to bottle it up. 

 

Amethyst couldn’t stand sitting here in a barn in the middle of nowhere as Pearl was possibly being subjected to shattering. 

 

“If Percy ends up with Paulette, then there is no justice in this world!” Peridot yelled at the TV screen. "The showrunner is alienating the entire fan base! I feel insulted!" 

 

Amethyst sighed. She ruffled her hands violently through her hair. “This is freaking ridiculous!” 

 

"I know," Peridot said, "Percy clearly moved on from Paulette in season seven." 

 

Amethyst stood up and said, “That’s it. I’m going to save Pearl.” 

 

“That’s a dumb idea,” Lapis deadpanned without her eyes leaving the TV screen. 

 

“Dumber than just sitting here while Pearl is about to be shattered?!” 

 

“I’m upset too Amethyst, but we have to listen to Garnet. She knows what to do,” Steven said.

 

“Pffff,” Peridot said with a laugh,” A pearl shattered? They don’t shatter pearls on Homeworld.” 

 

“What?” Amethyst asked, confused. 

 

“A Pearl is quite difficult to shatter," Peridot said. "They’re incredibly easy to poof, but try to shatter them and it takes literally hours and you end up with a dusty mess.” 

 

“That description was really disturbing,” Lapis shivered. 

 

“What do they do with pearls then?” Steven asked 

 

Peridot shrugged. “I don’t know. I just know that they take pearls into The Cells and then they’re never seen again. So if you want to be positive, then you just have to remember you’ll never see her again, but at least she wont be shattered!” 

 

“Great,” Amethyst rolled her eyes. Peridot always had weird logic to justify ways to celebrate joy or the bright side.  “Well, I don’t care what Garnet says. I’m going to get her. I can sneak onto the planet, break into the cells and --” 

 

“Impossible,” Peridot said. “No one’s broken out in eight thousand years. You would need someone who’s immune to gem technology.” 

 

Amethyst and Peridot looked at Steven. Steven broke them out of space jail that time. The Gem technology didn’t work on him. 

 

“Guys, I miss Pearl as much as the next person,” Steven said, “but--”

 

“But you’re immune to Gem technology,” Amethyst said, smiling. 

 

“The only way you could break into The Cells is if you cut off the power to the building,” Peridot said, “Someone would have to maneuver the cave system to the basement of The Cells’ Fortress. Then you would have to cut off all the power to the entire Capital City through The Cell’s power system. You would also have to hack into the security vision system to show fake hallway footage where all the guards are on alert. While The Cells’ security team is looking at the false footage, then you would have to poof every guard gem without an alarm going off. While this is all going on you would also have to sneak in someone who is immune to the gem technology past all the barriers, cough cough, Steven, and have that someone enter in all the security codes to let the others in. Then we could at least get to Pearl and the human. Also someone would need to be piloting the getaway ship so we could leave the galaxy before we are detected.” 

 

“That wont work,” Lapis said. 

 

“And why not?” Peridot asked while crossing her arms, offended. 

 

“Because it’s the plot of _Ocean’s Eleven_ ,” Lapis deadpanned. 

 

“I’m willing to try it,” Amethyst said. 

 

“Did anyone think about how suspicious it will be when a Peridot missing her limb extenders, an overcooked Amethyst, and a half-human, half-gem show up and try to take over the second most secure place on the planet besides the Great Diamond Authority Palace?” Lapis asked. 

 

“We could hide Steven in something, I’ll shapeshift, and we can find Peridot’s limb enhancers,” Amethyst said. 

 

“This is a bad idea. That’s all I’m going to say,” Lapis said. She shook her head and buried her hands into her face. “You really don’t understand, do you? This is futile. Listen to Garnet. Please?” 

 

“Lapis is right,” Peridot said. “Besides my limb enhancers are lost forever.” 

 

“That’s not exactly true,” Amethyst smiled. 

 

“What do you mean?” Peridot asked. 

 

“You know where the warp pads are?” 

 

“Of course,” Peridot said. 

 

“I kinda threw your limb enhancers in the water over there.” 

 

“WHAT?!” Peridot screamed, “You mean my limb enhancers have been right in front of my face this entire time and I’ve been suffering as a short gem this entire time?” 

 

“Hey, it’s not so bad being short,” Amethyst said. 

 

“So...secret team?” Steven asked raising his eyebrows. 

 

“Secret team,” Amethyst nodded. 

 

“This is a trap.” Lapis said, shaking her head. She stood up and looked Steven in the eyes with intense seriousness. “Please, Steven. Don’t do this.” 

 

“But it’s Pearl,” Steven said. "I have to do this for Pearl." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Pearl regenerates as she's being catalogued as a fugative. She realizes she's been captured and is being led to a trial hearing on Homeworld.


	3. The Courtroom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my head cannon, White Diamond is voiced by Bernadette Peters.

“She’s a fancy one,” Pearl heard a deep voice say.

“I know, right?” another, higher voice snickered. “What kind of gem flaunts around one like this? I mean look at her form.”

“Let’s see,” the deeper voice said. “342AC. Naturally Cultured. Shape, Near Round. Color, White Iridescent. Luster, Excellent. Owner...no way.”

“What? Let me see... You’re kidding. This is HER Pearl? The missing one?”

Pearl opened her eyes. She found herself in a small, cell-like room. Everything looked like it was out of that futuristic video game she didn't let Steven play. This was not the Homeworld she remembered. She didn’t recall regenerating and was confused as to why she was not in her gem. In front of her was a Peridot and a Jasper.

Pearl looked at her form and panicked. She was wearing a short ballet tutu adorned with intricate designs of sparkled swirls and lace. Her sleeves were long, uncomfortable, puffy and impractical. She had lost all color and now looked, pale, white. She put a lot of thought into her hair and into her form. It was practical and it represented who she was. But this was a monstrosity. She looked and felt ridiculous.

“Where is Sheena?” Pearl asked. “She’s not Rose Quartz!”

“The sleeping beauty is awake,” the Jasper said.

“Calm down,” the Peridot rolled her eyes. “We know she’s not Rose Quartz. Who do you think we are? A bunch of rubies?

“Haha! Good one!” the Jasper said.

“She’s a human. They need food and water or--” Pearl began.

“Look at it this way you frivolous decoration,” the Peridot said with a sigh, “Do you think Rose Quartz is going to let her two favorite things in the entire universe; her stolen Pearl and a human, rot here on Homeworld?”

This was a trap. Pearl shook her head. She was ashamed at herself for falling for this. They were expecting Rose Quartz to come to Homeworld and rescue her and Sheena.

Pearl would have to do this alone. She hoped Garnet prevented the others from coming to rescue her. Otherwise the Earth would be left unprotected.

“What’s with this form?” Pearl asked.

“It’s your original form,” the Peridot said.

“I know,” Pearl said through gritted teeth.

“How do you think we’re supposed to identify where you properly belong if we don’t force your regeneration to your original form?”

“Who I properly belong to?” Pearl panicked. “Where am I? I’m not in The Cells am I?”

“A lot might have changed in eight thousand years,” the Peridot said with a smirk, “but there’s no way in this universe that we’re ever letting you into The Cells again.”

“If I’m not going into The Cells, then where are they taking me?”

“Back to where you belong probably,” the Jasper shrugged.

“No,” Pearl shook her head,” No you can’t take me there. Just shatter me now. Please.”

“You are the most ungrateful pearl I’ve ever encountered,” the Peridot said. “Do you know how many pearls would shatter another gem to just be in you position? And instead you play escape artist and get yourself caught up with that traitor Rose Quartz. In my opinion, you should be shattered.”

“I am in complete agreement with that. Shatter me. Please. Let the human go back to Earth and shatter me.”

“Hah. Hear that Peridot? She thinks we can influence decisions around here,” the Jasper said.

They chained Pearl up with some type of glowing handcuffs that would keep her from retreating into her gem and took her into a large courtroom filled with all different types of gems. It was so packed, gems were standing on the sides and above on balconies.

Pearl could see Yellow Diamond and Yellow Pearl sitting in the front of the courtroom. Presiding over the court was a Sapphire.

“Can we begin?” Yellow Diamond asked, frustrated.

“She will be here shortly,” the Sapphire said.

“My sister. Always late,” Yellow Diamond puffed her cheeks in frustration.

The courtroom doors opened. All the gems stood up. A tall, stunning, white, shimmering gem walked down the court walkway, unaccompanied.

“I apologize for my tardiness,” White Diamond said, “I mean. It’s a busy job managing over thirty planets. My sister wouldn’t know that though with only twenty planets.”

“I just happen to appreciate being on time for things. Especially important matters like this,” Yellow Diamond said.

“I just want to start off and say,” White Diamond began, “thank you to my sister for returning one of my most precious belongings.” White Diamond winked at Pearl.

“You could have gotten her yourself,” Yellow Diamond said.

“Maybe I waited because I’m not that reliant on a pearl like some gems are?” White Diamond said. “Besides, you’re the one with the vendetta against Earth. I just want My Pearl back.”

“You don’t want to banish this pearl to The Cells?” the Sapphire asked.

“This Pearl is a special case,” Yellow Diamond said, “Eight thousand years ago, she was the one who used her special access given to her by my sister, White Diamond, to release Rose Quartz from The Cells. Her charges include; Treason, Grand theft Spacecraft, and Accessory to Shattering.”

“I would like to point out that Pearl was not involved directly with the...shattering of my sister Pink Diamond,” White Diamond said. “It is my strong belief that she was seduced and brainwashed by Rose Quartz. I would like to take her home and rectify her way of thinking.”

“I strongly recommend the unorthodox practice of shattering this pearl into the pile of dust she deserves to be,” Yellow Diamond said.

White Diamond shivered, “So graphic. Ick. Let me ask you this. What makes you feel the need to be that graphic, sister? Is it because you’re maybe jealous of the number of planets I’ve conquered?”

“No,” Yellow Diamond said. “This gem shattered our sister.”

“She didn’t shatter her,” White Diamond said. “ I was there and My Pearl had nothing to do with it. She was merely and innocent bystander. I would also just like to note that she is still carrying some items that belong to me and I am the only gem who can access theses items. Shattering her would not allow me access to these items.”

The Sapphire sat silently for a moment. “The Pearl will be returned to White Diamond.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Yellow Diamond.

“Is this about Planet 456X-B?” White Diamond asked.

“I don’t care that you took Planet 456X-B from me,” Yellow Diamond said. “She is a dangerous pearl.”

“Don’t worry sister. My Pearl isn’t going to have access to _anything_ ever again. Problem solved. Let me take my Pearl home and let’s be done with this,” White Diamond said.

White Diamond stood in font of Pearl and put her large hand on Pearl’s skinny shoulder. “My Pearl,” she said, “are you ready to go home?”

“Yes I am. Send me back to Earth,” Pearl said.

The courtroom filled with the sounds of other gems muttering in disbelief.

“She’s a bit feisty, but don’t worry. Pretty soon, she will forget Earth even exists,” White Diamond said, clearing her throat.


	4. Danny Ocean was in the Utility Closet the Entire Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE MOST RECENT EPISODE!  
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> HOLY SHIT THEY TOOK GREG! Obviously I’ll be adding some cannon elements to this now...I hope it’s not too weird.

When Pearl walked out of the courthouse, she felt intense dread. The city was lit up with screens. Intense lights of pink, blue, and yellow glowed everywhere. Pearl thought Empire City was a waste of power, but this was like Empire City on steroids. 

 

You used to be able to see the sky. 

 

Now towers rose hundreds of stories over her head. 

 

There were no stars. The city was too bright. 

 

She used to stare at the sky and find Earth’s star. She would dream of following Rose to there. Her sky was gone. Rose was gone. 

 

Yellow Diamond left the courthouse with her pearl and scowled at White Diamond. 

 

“I don’t think you even care she’s gone.” Yellow Diamond said with disdain. 

 

“Of course I miss her....” White Diamond said sadly.  “Look, my pearl didn’t help shatter her.” 

 

“I know you didn’t see what happened,” Yellow Diamond said. “You liar.” 

 

“I saw.” 

 

“Then who did it? Who helped Rose Quartz? Pink Diamond had her corned!” Yellow Diamond said, “I don’t care how beautiful of a pearl you think this one is--” 

 

“She’s also a terrific dancer.” White Diamond said, “She didn’t help. Okay? I think you're just jealous of my pearl” 

 

“That is absolutely ridiculous,” Yellow Diamond said, “She’s a menace. She’s a shatterer. She’s--”  

 

“That’s enough,” White Diamond said, “a sapphire doesn’t lie about the future. If something bad was going to happen, she wouldn’t have released Pearl to me.” 

 

Yellow Diamond left the courthouse steps with her pearl and entered into a small, hovering ship. 

 

“Stand up straight,” White Diamond said to a slouching Pearl. “Every gem is watching.” White Diamond gestured to the screens floating around the city, which showed Pearl and White Diamond leaving the courthouse. She gently tapped the frustrated Pearl on the back, who immediately regained her posture.  

Pearl observed herself on the giant screen. She looked, strange, repressed, and too made up to do anything remotely useful. Her hair was curled and arranged in an ornate design. Worst of all were the two dangling earrings in the shape of diamonds that hung from her ears. 

 

White Diamond set her giant hand down on the ground, palm out and level with Pearl. “Come on, Pearl. Give them one of your poses.” 

 

“I don’t want to,” Pearl said. 

 

White Diamond sighed and removed her hand. “I’ll let it slide. Just this once.”

 

A lapis lazuli appeared on all the screens and said,“Seemingly out of nowhere, The Defected Pearl Rose Quartz stole from White Diamond has returned to Homeworld. In an act of mercy, our Great Ruler White Diamond has agreed to pardon her in exchange for the location of the coward traitor Rose Quartz.” 

 

“I’m not telling you where Rose is,” Pearl said. 

 

“You don’t need to,” White Diamond said as she waved to the floating drone-esque news cameras with a disingenuous smile. “I already know everything that’s happened to you. Do you think we just poofed you and didn’t examine your memories? I know everything.” 

 

“Everything?” Pearl looked at White Diamond in horror. 

 

“Let’s go.” 

 

As Pearl followed White Diamond into a small, floating ship with no driver. She saw a ruby with handcuffs similar to hers being escorted by two jaspers into the courthouse. The ruby began to resist and the two jaspers used a destabilizer to cause her to retreat into her gem. The ruby regenerated with no handcuffs and tried to flee. 

 

The handcuffs were laying on the ground next to her gem. 

 

The jasper forced the ruby to the ground and handcuffed her again. “Nice try!” one jasper taunted to the ruby. 

 

When the door to the hovering vehicle closed, Pearl, ashamed as she was for resorting to this, begged White Diamond, “Please, I need to know how many hours I’ve been here. Humans can only survive without--” 

 

“Pearl, please we don’t measure time like that. It’s insulting you would even ask. What are you going to do next? Ask me when ‘Tuesday,’ is?”

 

Pearl once thought the idea of Tuesday was ridiculous. But then it became important. The Gems would go to visit Steven on Tuesdays when he lived with Greg. 

 

“I’m serious. Humans can only survive seventy-two hours without water,” Pearl said as she fiddled with her handcuffs. 

 

“We have a Human Zoo, Pearl. I know what humans need to survive.” 

 

“So she has water?” 

 

“Do you want me to give her water?” White Diamond asked with confusion. 

 

Pearl nodded with wide eyes. 

 

“Are you going to listen to me?”

 

“Yes,” Pearl said. 

 

“Alright then. I will have some pearls melt a portion of the ice supply down.”

 

“...they also need food.” 

 

“Fine. I think we have some oatmeal laying around somewhere.” 

 

“Oatmeal?” 

 

White Diamond shrugged. “I like the brown sugar and raspberries kind.” 

 

“You eat food?” Pearl said with a restrained laugh. She didn’t want this to become casual like it used to be.

 

“I feel like you forget we fought in a war on the same planet for a thousand years.” White Diamond said. “I don’t hate humans. I don’t hate Earth. There are some good things about it. Like raspberries for instance.” 

 

Pearl sat in silence as she tried to formulate an escape from what seemed to be a forlorn situation. 

 

“....You know, in the timeline of the history of the Universe, of our existence, eight thousand years is just a blip,” White Diamond Said, “but so much can happen in just a blip. A blip can feel like forever.” She put her hand on top of Pearl’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. She pulled her hand away and said, “Pearl, I will return your human to Earth. Don’t worry. She’s just the bait.” 

 

“Rose Quartz is...gone. There’s nobody to catch,” Pearl said, shaking her head. 

 

“I know what Rose has become,” White Diamond said. 

 

“Steven is just a human child. I know we don’t have ‘children,’ here, but he doesn’t understand any of this. He doesn’t even know what--” 

 

“I’m not going to hurt the human child. I just want the gem, Pearl,” White Diamond said, her voice wavering. “I just want to take Rose’s gem and shatter it.” 

 

Pearl didn’t know what would happen if Steven's Gem was taken out of him. She almost tried to pull it off him once, but when he giggled and his little voice filled her with joy, she noticed he had the same nose as Rose and she never wanted him to ever feel pain. 

 

“And then everything can go back to the way it was. We can go back to the way we were,” White Diamond said. “Before this mess.” 

 

“I-I can’t even open Era Two doors,” Pearl said. “Please, just banish me. Release the human. We are useless to you.” 

 

_Rose once said to Pearl, “You don’t have to open doors for me.  I can do it myself. It’s not rocket science.”_

 

_“Rocket science is easier,” Pearl responded as she poked the door's touch pad with frustration. “If you can actually believe that.”_

 

_After many attempts, Pearl kept getting denied access for the door to open._

 

_“You’re not a good Pearl, are you?” Rose asked with a smirk._

 

 _What would be an insult from any other other gem made Pearl feel_ _extraordinary. She had never felt like that before._

 

White Diamond said, “Pearl, I don’t care about the logistics of the doors. I just want to dance with you again.” 

 

“There was a reason you took me from Earth...wasn’t there?” Pearl asked. 

 

“Do I want to shatter Rose Quartz with my own hands and save my pearl before the inevitable happens? Well, yes of course.” 

 

Pearl leaned back in her seat. Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t simply a trap. 

 

“Save me before what?” Pearl asked, worried. She already knew what White Diamond meant. 

 

“My plans for the cluster more complicated than you think,” White Diamond said. 

 

For the first time in eight thousand years. Pearl felt completely hopeless. 

 

* * *

 

Thoughts raced through Steven’s head. When Blue Diamond took Dad, Garnet wanted to get him as soon as possible. Now that Pearl’s been taken, Garnet refused to go and get her. _“Pearl will be fine,” Garnet said._ Despite Garnet’s future vision, she didn’t sound so confident that Pearl would come back. Was it because something would happen to the cluster soon? 

 

Amethyst was holding Peridot’s legs on the Gem Warp Pad platform as Peridot tried to use her magnetic powers to lift her limb enhancers out of the water surrounding it. 

 

“Stop squirming!” Amethyst yelled. 

 

“I wouldn’t squirm if you could hold a gem’s leg properly!” Peridot said. 

 

“Dude, hurry up. If we’re gonna go to Homeworld, we gotta step on it. If they think Pearl’s FWB is a gem, they’re not going to give her any water!” 

 

“Amethyst?” Steven asked. 

 

“Yeah?” Amethyst said as she struggled to hold on to a squirming Peridot. 

 

“What did Pearl do back on Homeworld?” 

 

“She was a servant, duh,” Amethyst said.

 

“To who?” Steven asked. 

 

“I dunno. You think they actually tell me anything about what happened before I was made?” Amethyst tightened her hold as Peridot began to fidget; moving her arms around wildly. “Keep still, Perri!” 

 

“I need to move my arms to make it work!” Peridot said. 

 

“So you don’t know?’ Steven asked. 

 

“I know for sure exactly three things about Pearl and I’ve known her for three thousand years,” Amethyst said, “Well four, but I don’t think I should tell you the fourth one.” 

 

“Well, now I wanna hear the fourth one!” 

 

“She loved Rose. She’s neat to the point where she is obsessed with symmetry. And she likes baking pies, but not eating them.” 

 

“And the fourth one?” 

 

“One time I saw her dance with Rose on the beach at sunset and it was like literally the most beautiful freaking thing I’ve seen in my life.”  

 

“Yeah,” Steven said, “That fourth one was a little awkward for some reason.” 

 

Peridot lifted her limb enhancers out of the water with her magnetic telepathy. “Victory!” 

 

Amethyst pulled back and dropped Peridot on the ground. “Alright. Let’s warp back to the barn and hit the road with the Roaming Eye ship. When we get on there and into space, I can use the vid-chat thing to call my Amethyst peeps at the Human Zoo and tell them we might need backup. “

 

“Do you think Pearl um, well, belonged to someone important?” Steven asked. 

 

“I dunno Steven,” Amethyst sighed, “I don’t want to talk about this. It’s making me super uncomfortable.” 

 

“Of course she did,” Peridot said while attaching her limb enhancers.

 

“What do you mean of course she did?” Steven and Amethyst both asked. 

 

“Have you seen her? She’s just so well made. Practically a masterpiece,” Peridot said, laughing. “You do realize all pearls can’t dance like she can? Or sing like that...or do both at the same time while crying and telling a story...There’s some, like, really, really intense training for it. They don’t all pass. Also there’s her attitude. She puts on airs like she’s the best thing since a gravitational processor. Trust me. Whoever had her, was very important.” 

 

“You’re saying they took her because they knew she was here?” Amethyst asked with caution. 

 

“I mean, probably. You don’t just lose a Pearl like that,” Peridot said. She laughed to herself, but then paused with fear. Her voice became shaky and rose an octave, “You don’t just lose a Pearl like that!” She shook her head, “I’m sorry to tell this to you guys this, but I think Pearl is a double agent! She’s Danny Ocean getting beat up in the utility closet and we’re the casino owner! Earth is the casino!” 

 

“That’s it, I’m canceling your Netflix subscription,” Amethyst said. “Pearl isn’t a double agent.” 

 

“I think this is a trap,” Steven said, “...or worse.” 

 

“What could be worse than a trap?” Peridot asked. 

 

“I don’t know,” Steven said, he started tearing up, “I hate to say it, but I think we should listen to Garnet.” 

 

“Well, I’m going!” Amethyst yelled. 

 

“Amethyst! It is a trap!” Steven said. 

 

Amethyst sat on the ground. “I know. I just don’t care that it is.” She shook her head and began to tear up. “Back before you were, you know--” 

 

“Born?” Steven asked with a hint of sorrow. 

 

Amethyst nodded, “Whenever Garnet was off alone, which was a lot or when Rose was with Greg...I had Pearl. And I know she’s pretentious and judgmental and annoying for being so damn perfect, but she just wants to do her best. All the time. And...and she’s like, I dunno,” Amethyst began to mumble,”my hero or something for doing that.” 

 

“I love Pearl too.” Steven said patting Amethyst’s back. 

 

“And that’s why I have to go and get her,” Amethyst said. “Forget the future vision. It’s been wrong before. Actually it’s wrong kind of a lot.” 

 

Steven nodded, He understood. Just because Pearl was stranded on a technologically advanced planet, didn’t mean they could let her be trapped there. 

 

“I’ll call Connie to get us some secret mission supplies,” Steven said as he dialed his cell phone.  

 

“If we’re doing this, can I reset the ship lights to green?” Peridot asked. 

 

“I don’t give a flying--” Amethyst began to say. 

 

“Go ahead!” Steven interrupted. 

 

“Yes!” Peridot said with a fist pump as they stood on the warp pad to bring them back to the barn. 


	5. Tea and Emergency Blankets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I think this work is going to end up being way longer than I thought.

 

Pearl stood in font of the door, resting her chin in her hands. White Diamond and the ruby guards were waiting in a hall of the Diamond Authority Palace for Pearl to open the door to The Great Room. 

 

Pearl slowly reached for the door touchpad, which stated on the screen “Access Denied.” 

 

“Left, Pearl,” White Diamond said. “Left. Swipe left.” 

 

Pearl carelessly swiped left. “Access denied,” popped up on the touchscreen again. 

 

“This is the third door we’ve been through!” White Diamond said, "Left! What do you not understand about left!” 

 

“I am swiping left, My Diamond,” Pearl said in a slightly mocking tone. Pearl fiddled with the touchscreen again. “Access denied,” read on the screen. 

 

“Oh my freaking stars!” White Diamond yelled, “Pearl, you are not this stupid! You built an almost working spaceship out of one of those tin, archaic human aircrafts!” 

 

Pearl swiped the screen again. “Access denied. You have one more attempt,” the screen said in a robotic voice. 

 

“That’s it!” White Diamond screamed. “Everyone turn around. Face the wall. If anyone looks at me I will shatter them to pieces with no trial!” 

 

The ruby guards, all with terrified looks, turned away and faced the wall. 

 

White Diamond walked up to the touchpad. She swiped left and entered in the code 456X-B. The door opened. “Access Granted,” the robotic voice said.  

 

“After you, MY Diamond” Pearl said, bowing and gesturing to the door. 

 

“You will learn to open these doors,” White Diamond said before walking through the doorway. 

 

Pearl walked into the Great Hall, a cavernous room made entirely out of bedrock carved into intricate, diamond designs. Embedded into the rock were statues of the Diamonds standing with their pearls. At the front of the room was a large throne surrounded by three smaller ones. 

 

Pearl used to dance here. She thought of the agonizing hours, possibly centuries she spent in this room. This room was the bane of her existence, but it was also where she first saw Rose. 

 

_A holo-Pearl dipped her. That’s when she first saw Rose Quartz. Even from upside down, Pearl noticed the beautiful, wild pink curls surrounding Rose’s face._

 

 _Pearl had been told that she was made perfect. All she had to do was live up to that._ _The other gems would say, “She’s so well made.” “She’s so well behaved,” they told White Diamond. “How polite she responds to White Diamond.” “If only my Pearl was like her.”_

 

_Rose’s lips scrunched up in confusion. Pearl wondered, had this pink-haired gem never seen a Pearl dance before?_

 

“It’s time for tea,” White Diamond said. She gestured for Pearl to follow her into a small room. White Diamond ordered for Pearl to set the table and bring over a pot of tea that was sitting on a drink cart.

 

“Why are we drinking tea?” Pearl asked with suspicion as she poured the water into White Diamond’s comically small cup in comparison to the gem's size. 

 

“I heard you like tea and I want you to feel happy,” White Diamond said, shrugging. 

 

“I don’t feel like drinking tea,” Pearl said. 

 

“Well I do,” White Diamond said. “Sit.” 

 

Pearl sat down at the table. She pushed her cup away. 

 

“Why do you feel the need to hate me, Pearl?” White Diamond asked. 

 

“Are you kidding me?” Pearl asked, crossing her arms. 

 

“Most Pearls would love to be in your position,” White Diamond said. “In every batch of Pearls, I check for one that matches six qualities; beauty, grace, athleticism, intelligence, iridescence, and compliance. Seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? Like how hard could it be to find all of those qualities in one pearl?” 

 

Pearl did not answer the question. She already knew what White Diamond was going to say. 

 

“It’s ridiculously hard,” White Diamond said, before taking a sip of her tea. “You open up the shell. It’s a gamble. What kind of pearl will this shell contain? Is this pearl athletic? Yes, but she’s not an iridescent and she has the grace of a drunk giraffe. One could be an iridescent and have the personality of a wall. One is dumb as a ruby. One can’t dance. NONE of them match all the qualifications. I mean, you don’t even match all the qualifications.” 

 

“Am I too disobedient, MY Diamond?” Pearl asked, taking a sip of her tea.

 

“I don’t think disobedient would even begin to describe what you are,” White Diamond said. “I want this to work out, Pearl. You were the only gem--I mean pearl, I've ever had that I felt, well, close to.  I believe we both know what will become of Earth in a short time from now. There's no point in you going back unless you want to be shattered there.” 

 

Pearl had a feelng they were going to blow up the cluster. 

 

“Don’t you want to forget Earth?” White Diamond said. “Especially after what Rose did to my sister there?” 

 

Pearl looked away. She didn’t want to talk about this. She locked this memory in the back of her head. The trauma prevented her and Rose from fusing for a long time. 

 

_When Pearl danced, it wasn’t for herself. Entertain me, White Diamond would say. Then there were hours and hours of dancing._

 

_“Do you like dancing?” Rose asked her as Pearl escorted her to a meeting at The Great Hall._

 

_Pearl never thought about it before. “Sometimes.”_

 

_“Have you ever danced with another gem?” Rose asked. “I mean, I’ve only seen you dance with the hologram.”_

 

_“Of course,” Pearl said, “I’ve danced with Pink Pearl, Blue Pearl, and...”_

 

_“And?” Rose asked._

 

_“I think that’s it,” Pearl lied._

 

_“Can...can I dance with you sometime?” Rose asked._

 

_Pearl looked at Rose, bewildered. No had ever asked her that with a longing sincerity before._

 

_“Um, okay,” Pearl said. “She can’t know though. No one can know.”_

 

_“I understand,” Rose nodded._

 

_Pearl opened the door for Rose. “After you,” she said, bowing._

 

_“Thank you,” Rose said, grazing Pearl’s cheek, "for accepting my offer, I mean. You...you didn’t have to. You know that, right?”_

 

_“I do. I assure you a ‘good,’ pearl would have told you, ‘no,’” Pearl said. “Good luck with your presentation on Earth.”_

 

“I know you have it in there, Pearl,” White Diamond said. 

 

Pearl took a long, pretentious sip of her tea and said, “Why My Diamond I haven’t the faintest clue what you’re inquiring about.” 

 

“I looked,” White Diamond said through gritted teeth. “I thoroughly searched that pretty, little gem of yours and it’s not there. Not anywhere in your gem. I know she would have had you hold it for her. Where is it?” 

 

“Where’s what?” 

 

“Where is the sword?!” White Diamond said, slamming her fists on the table. 

 

Pearl’s eyes widened. It took every photon she was made of to remain calm. “Let’s be clear about this. Do you only want me back here because you actually miss me or is it because you want the sword?” 

 

“Can’t it be both?” White Diamond asked. "Come on, Pearl. You know how I feel about you. I don't want this to be a conflict between us, which is why we need to resolve this as soon as possible." 

 

“It was too heavy,” Pearl said. 

 

“Now you’re kidding me,” White Diamond said.  

 

“It was taking up too much space. I disposed of it.” 

 

White Diamond visibly slouched in her chair. “I don’t get it, Pearl. I brought you here and saved you from being shattered. You should be thanking me, especially with what you...what you did.” 

 

Pearl couldn’t keep her composure any longer. She dropped the tea cup. It cracked into pieces on the bedrock floor.

 

“Clean that up,” White Diamond said. “Now.” 

 

But Pearl was shivering. Her hands covered her mouth.

 

“Pearl. Pick. It. Up.” White Diamond said, “Or you will never see your human again.” 

 

Pearl forced herself to kneel on the floor and began to pick up the broken pieces with shaky hands.” 

 

“I’ll tell everyone,” White Diamond said. “I’ll even wait until Tiny Rose comes all the way here to rescue you and tell them right there. Tiny Rose will realize what a waste it was to come all the way here to rescue you, only for me to take their gem.” 

 

Steven couldn’t know what happened. He wouldn’t understand. He wouldn’t look at Pearl the same way again. Everything was till so black and white to him. 

 

“I’m--I’m sorry, My Diamond,” Pearl said, only this time it was genuine. “I didn’t want it to happen.” 

 

“I know,” White Diamond said. “You owe me Pearl. You didn’t stop it and--and you could have. You could have stopped it.” White Diamond kneeled next to Pearl. She lifted Pearl's chin up to look at her, "What happened to the sword?" 

 

"You saw my memories. You should know." 

 

"Don't play dumb. Not that sword. The other one. I didnt find a memory for it." 

 

"Rose destroyed it," Pearl said. 

 

"Are you lying?" 

 

Pearl shook her head and continued picking up the shattered cup. 

 

* * *

 

 

Back at the Barn, the lights to the Roaming Eye turned on and shined a bright, green light into Steven’s eyes. 

 

“I think this is more our style,” Peridot said. 

 

“I don’t care what our style is,” Amethyst said. “Can we hurry up and get on the road here?” 

 

"We have to wait for Connie to show up with some survival gear,” Steven said. “Do you want to be unprepared like last time?” 

 

“Last time we went unprepared into space to rescue someone it worked out pretty sweet,” Amethyst said. “Your dad is back and I found out what facet I came from.” 

 

“You guys are making a dumb decision,” Lapis yelled over as she watched _Pining Hearts_ on her TV. 

 

“Noted, Lapis!” Peridot yelled back.

 

"When you're sitting in the dark in The Cells, just remember that I warned you!" Lapis said. 

 

“I’m here!” Steven heard Connie yell as she ran up the hill with a large bag. “I got everything you could possibly need to help a human in space. My mom is going to kill me when she finds out I raided some of her medical supplies from her office.” 

 

“Thanks, Connie!” Steven said looking into the bag. “Walkie talkies?!”

 

“There might be no cell signals out there. You guys will need these to communicate,” Connie said, “I also put in a medical kit, an emergency blanket, like two gallons of water, water treatment tablets, a raincoat, some granola trail mix, a star chart, and some lip balm.” 

 

“This is perfect!” Steven said. "Also, why are there watches?" 

 

"You'll need to synchronize them," Connie said, "in case you get seperated. You can figure out meeting times." She dug her shoe into the dirt nervously. “Please be careful, Steven." 

 

Steven put his hand on Connie’s shoulder. “I will. Will you help Lapis and Garnet keep Earth safe while I’m gone?” 

 

“Are we doing this?” Amethyst asked as she boarded the Roaming Eye. 

 

“Be right there!” Steven yelled back. 

 

“Don’t worry. I will,” Connie said. 

 

“Here,” Steven said. He took Rose’s sword off his back and gave it to Connie. “You might need this.” 

 

“I can’t take this now!” Connie said, “What if you need it?” 

 

“It’s a secret mission. Hopefully we'll be so inconspicuous they wont even know we're there,” Steven said. “I don’t want to lose it while I'm on another planet.” 

 

Steven boarded the ship with Peridot and Amethyst. 

 

Connie blocked the wind from her face as the ship took off. As the Roaming Eye became a dot of light in the distance, she felt the ground rumble. 


	6. A Chain of Earthquakes; that's a thing, right?

Pearl, with the chains around her ankles, scampered behind White Diamond as she attempted to keep up with White Diamond’s long, arduous steps. 

 

“Keep up, Pearl,” White Diamond said. 

 

“Perhaps it would be a wise choice to unlock the chains on my ankles so I can keep up,” Pearl said. 

 

“Nice try,” White Diamond said. “It’s going to take me at least a thousand years to trust you again.” 

 

When they approached a door, the ruby body guards stood, scared. 

 

“My Diamond,” one of the rubies asked, “shall we turn around and face the wall?” 

 

“Did I ask you to do that?” White Diamond asked. She gestured to Pearl. “Open the door.” 

 

Pearl approached the door’s touchscreen. She had an idea of how these doors worked, but the satisfaction of watching White Diamond open a door was too enticing to pass up. Pearl could learn anything she wanted. She knew that. However, Pearl didn’t want to become too comfortable in this position. Refusing to learn how to open doors was her form of passive defiance. She swiped in an, “off left,” motion. 

 

“Access denied,” the robotic voice said. 

 

White Diamond shook her head. “Turn around,” she said to the ruby guards as she knelt on the ground next to Pearl. 

 

She gently took Pearl’s hand in hers and directed Pearl to open the door. “Like this,” White Diamond said with a placid whisper. “I know you, Pearl. Stop pretending you don’t know what you’re doing. You always know what you’re doing. And if you don’t, you pretend that you do.” 

 

Then the door opened. 

 

_“I don’t have much time,” Pearl said, rushing into the large, empty room. “She thinks I’m delivering a message to The Cells.”_

 

_“She trusts you enough to go alone?” Rose asked._

 

_“Luckily for some reason she does,” Pearl said._

 

_“What’s it like in there; The Cells?” Rose asked._

 

_“Dark,” Pearl said restraining her terror._

 

_Rose offered her hand to Pearl. Pearl accepted with a slight grin._

 

_“I’ve never actually danced before so--” Rose said._

 

_“You’ve never danced before?’ Pearl asked._

 

_Rose shook her head. “I’m a soldier. I wasn’t exactly made for it, so why would I need to? At least, that’s how I used to think about it. When I saw you dancing, I decided I wanted to learn.”_

 

_“You just decided you wanted to do something that you weren’t made to do?” Pearl asked._

 

_“Humans do it all the time.”_

 

_“Those organic beings from Earth?” Pearl asked with a laugh._

 

_“It sounds silly, but if you could only see the things they manage to teach themselves and each other. It’s just mesmerizing watching them.”_

 

_Pearl straightened her back and rose her chin up. “You must bow to your partner. It’s just a formality, but--”_

 

_Rose bowed, “It’s a sign of agreement?”_

 

_“Exactly,” Pearl said, putting her hand on Rose’s shoulder. “Your arm goes around my waist.”_

 

_Pearl felt Rose’s hand on the small of her back as she laced her right hand in Rose’s left hand. She blushed blue before regaining her serious composure. “Now left foot forward, then the right foot.”_

 

_Rose stepped forward._

 

_“Bring the left foot to the right, then step back with your right foot. It’s like a box motion. Move from heel to toe.”_

 

_They began a simple waltz. Dancing like one graceful entity; like they fit together._

 

_“This is easy,” Rose said, smiling down at Pearl. “What else do you got?”_

 

_“Change the direction,” Pearl said. “Change the order of the steps.”_

 

_They switched their foot progression. “Good,” Pearl said, “Now put your whole body into it. Feel the rhythm of the steps as you move with me. This is the rise. Rose onto your toes. I mean, rise onto your toes.”_

 

_They rose on their toes and then together went back onto the flats of their feet. Pearl naturally pulled back and allowed Rose to spin her before they joined back into a closed position. Pearl cleared her throat. “You could dip me if you wanted to.”_

 

_Then Rose dipped Pearl. She could hold Pearl’s delicate body with just one hand. Pearl lifted her leg up to Rose’s waist._

 

_“Can I kiss you?” Rose asked._

 

_Pearl sucked on her bottom lip nervously. “I would like that."_

 

_When Rose’s lips met with Pearl’s, Pearl felt strange... She couldn’t describe it exactly. Her body felt like mush, like it was merging with something. Pearl opened her eyes and saw that her light, her body, was starting to become one with Rose’s. Pearl pulled away and looked at Rose, mortified._

 

_“I--I didn’t know that would happen,” Rose said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that we would almost, almost--”_

 

_“Fuse?” Pearl asked. She nodded her head and began to pace around the room. “You’re a Quartz’s for stars sake! And I’m-I’m just a Pearl! Oh dear, she’s gonna shatter me for this!” Pearl began to hyperventilate. She hugged her body and walked around in circles, repeating nonsensical phrases that included, “Dance forever and I mean like the real forever,” “if time is circular then I will be dancing until I see the Big Bang,” “shattered,” “in pieces forever, “The Cells,” “never see light again.”_

 

_Rose gently grabbed Pearl by the shoulders. “Pearl, shhhhh. Look at me.”_

 

_“Calm down,” Rose said rubbing Pearl’s shoulders. Pearl stopped pacing and returned Rose’s gaze. “She never has to know.”_

 

_“Okay,” Pearl nodded._

 

_“Never. Got it?’_

 

_“Got it.”_

 

_“We could...we could even dance again and she never has to know...”_

 

_“We could,” Pearl said, with a nervous laugh. “She never has to know!”_

 

Pearl and White Diamond entered a meeting room, where Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond sat, waiting. 

 

“Finally,” Yellow Diamond said. “I’ve been waiting so long that I thought I would find out if time is circular.” 

 

“She’s not that late,” Blue Diamond said. 

 

“Let’s just get this over with so I can stop dealing with this planet,” White Diamond said. She took a seat at the table and set her hand on the floor, signaling for Pearl to hop on her hand. 

 

“No way. She is not allowed to be here,” Yellow Diamond said. “I’ll have my Pearl watch her in the hall.” 

 

“How am I supposed to know if I have any messages if my Pearl is out in the hallway? I’ll be in the dark about what I might be doing later,” White Diamond said. 

 

“Who’s going to give you a message?” Yellow Diamond scoffed, “An Emerald you have tea plans with later?” 

 

“The fact that I may or may not have plans with an Emerald are irrelevant to this,” White Diamond said. “I don’t see the big deal if My Pearl stays here.” 

 

“You don’t see the big deal? She betrayed us for this planet!” Yellow Diamond said, enraged. “Also, how about maybe she orchestrated the assassination of our sister?” 

 

“That was proven false in court,” White Diamond said. 

 

“Weren’t you the one to declare it false in court?” Blue Diamond asked. 

 

White Diamond remained silent for a moment. “Fine. Sorry, Pearl, you’ll have to go in the hallway.” 

 

Yellow Pearl linked her arm with Pearl’s and led her out into the hallway. Pearl looked back as Yellow Pearl dragged her. A giant hologram map of Earth popped up from the center of the conference table. 

 

Out in the hall, Pearl leaned against the bedrock walls, while Yellow Pearl stood obediently with perfect posture. 

 

“Stand up straight. What if someone sees you? You’re absolutely careless,” Yellow Pearl said. 

 

“Have you thought that maybe you’re taking this lifelong servitude thing too seriously?” Pearl asked. 

 

“Have you maybe thought you took the intergalactic criminal thing too seriously?” Yellow Pearl said. 

 

“I’ll have you know I’m considered to be a square on Earth,” Pearl said. “I spend a lot of time doing puzzles!” 

 

“You really can’t speak without bragging about yourself, can you?” Yellow Pearl said. “You can’t even open a door.” 

 

“I don’t want to open doors!” Pearl said. 

 

“You take that back! All pearls love opening doors!” Yellow Pearl said. 

 

“This is ridiculous. I’m not fighting with a brainwashed gem about opening doors,” Pearl said. 

 

“I’m not the brainwashed one.” 

 

Pearl buried her face in her hands, “It’s like a circle, arguing with you. There’s no end.” She corrected her posture and loosened her shoulders. “Do you know what they’re going to do to Earth?” 

 

“Of course I do,” Yellow Pearl said. “Your friends aren’t going to be too happy about it.” 

 

“How are they going to activate the cluster?” Pearl asked. 

 

Yellow Pearl looked up and down the hallway to see if they were alone. She whispered to Pearl, “Give me something and I’ll give you something. Tit-for-tat.” 

 

“I’ve been here for three hours after being absent for eight thousand years. Do you really think I have any relevant information?” 

 

“Come on,” Yellow Pearl said, “you used to know everything.” 

 

“And now I’m completely out of the loop,” Pearl said. “Like when did we get giant video billboards with Lapis-Lazulis delivering the news?”  

 

“You know how it goes, Pearl. You set the precedent back in the day. Give me something good and I’ll tell you what you’ve been dying to hear.” 

 

“I can teach you to summon a weapon,” Pearl rose her eyebrows at Yellow Pearl. 

 

“Hah. Like teaching me how to commit treason is going to be good enough for me to give you information on the cluster,” Yellow Pearl said. “You know, I used to look up to you. You were, complacent, obedient. It was like you were almost...friends with your Diamond.” 

 

“We were friends,” Pearl said. 

  

* * *

 

The only thing Greg Universe loved more than his guitar was Steven. And as much as he loved his guitar, a close second to his guitar was naps. He was laying down on his lounge chair, dreaming about playing in front of a giant crowd at The Amphitheater in Empire City. 

 

Just as he was about to rock his kickass guitar solo, he heard a loud shriek, “It’s happening!” 

 

Greg opened his eyes from his sweet dreams only to see a panicked, yet excited Ronaldo running by, waving a camera. “It’s happening!” 

 

“What’s happening?” Greg asked, groggily. 

 

“The Great Diamond Authority is coming!” Ronaldo said. “Hold on a sec. I’ll prove it.” 

 

Greg began to panic. Although most considered Ronaldo to be a complete whack job, Greg knew that there happened to be a lot of credence to the idea of a Great Diamond Authority to exist. He rose to his feet from his lounge chair. 

 

The ground began to rumble. 

 

“See?!” Ronaldo began to jump up and down. “They’re coming!” 

 

“How do you know they’re coming?” Greg asked. 

 

“I’ve been tracking them. Haven’t you noticed a lot of the old ruins around here have the Diamond Symbol on them?” 

 

Greg did notice that. He knew it had to do with the Gems, but they preferred he stay out of such problems. “ _Greg_ , this matter does not concern you,” Pearl used to say. She had particularly patronizing way of adding en extra hard ‘g’ to the end of his name. 

 

_“What she means is that it’s dangerous and you’re made out of organic matter,” Rose would kindly correct her._

 

“My blog is finally going to take off! Youtube subscribers will pay my way through life and I wont have to work at the fry stand anymore. This is it!” Ronaldo said, then ran off toward the beach.

 

“This can’t be good,” Greg said to himself. He decided to go to the beach house and find the Gems and Steven. As he drove through town, people were freaking out about all the rumbling. 

 

“Calm down folks! It’s just a small earthquake!” Mayor Dewey was yelling from his truck. The ground rumbled again. "A small chain of earthquakes. That's a thing, right?" 

 

Greg parked his van and walked up to the beach house. He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. “Steven? Kiddo? You in there?” 

 

Garnet opened the door, “Hi Greg,” she said, leaning against the doorway. 

 

“Hi Garnet. So there’s been some earthquakes and that fry stand kid is yelling about the Great Diamond Authority coming and I wanted to see if Steven was okay.” 

 

Garnet did not answer him. She just stood in the doorway to Greg’s frustration. 

 

“Where’s Steven?” 

 

Garnet sighed, “Pearl got kidnapped by Yellow Diamond. 

 

“Oh no...” Greg said. What Rose Quartz divulged to Greg about Pearl’s past was, at times, the only reason he put up with her. 

 

 _“Pearl means well,” Rose once said. “After you give yourself completely to one person or thing for thousands of years. It can be tough to establish some boundaries in a healthy way. It’s the only way she knows how to love.”_  

 

“Steven didn’t go did he-” 

 

Garnet nodded.  

 

“YOU LET HIM GO AFTER HER?!” Greg said. He began ruffling his hands through the little hair he had left on the top of his head. 

 

“I told him not to go,” Garnet said. “There comes a point where Steven is going to be powerful enough and smart enough to make these kind of decisions on his own. We have most likely reached that point.” 

 

“What about Earth?!” 

 

“Greg, I’m going to be upfront with you,” Garnet sighed, “I have no idea what is going on. I do know, however, that Homeworld shot themselves in the foot by kidnapping Pearl.” 

 

“And why is that?” 

 

“It’s the only way we’re going to find out what the heck is going on with the cluster.” 

 

“So Steven is on completely different planet where Pearl is with one of the most dangerous beings in the entire universe and you’re here. On Earth! What the hey am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to make sure he is safe?” 

 

“Don’t worry. Amethyst is with him,” Garnet said. “I told them not to go, that Pearl would make it back on her own, and they needed to be here to protect Earth, but they didn’t listen to me.” 

 

Greg started breathing heavily, almost keeling over. Garnet out her hand on his shoulder. 

 

“Greg, if there’s one pearl who hates doing the job of a Homeworld pearl, it’s Pearl,” Garnet said, “Man, that was kind of a tongue twister. Anyway, she and the others will return to us.” The ground rumbled again. “I need to go to the barn and discuss what to do with Lapis.” 

* * *

 

 

Steven looked at the star map Connie gave him. Peridot sat in the driver’s seat of the Roaming Eye. 

 

“You guys better get comfortable,” Peridot said, “because unless you want to take eighty years to get to Homeworld, then we’re going to have to bend some time and space to get there.” 

 

“What’s Homeworld like?” Steven asked. 

 

“It’s like Empire City, but with rock-based structures instead of steel,” Peridot said. 

 

“Fun,” Amethyst said. “How are we going to sneak Steven in there? If we just leave the ship with some random organic human, they’re going to pick us up in like the first two seconds we get there.” 

 

Peridot grabbed an empty green robot pod. “Get in, Steven.” 

 

Steven hopped in the green robot pod. Peridot took the shiny emergency blanket and covered Steven. Then she shut the cover to the robot pod.  

 

“How am I supposed to see what Homeworld looks like?” Steven asked, his voice muffled from being inside the robot pod. 

 

“It’s really not that exciting,” Peridot said. 

 

“Wait!” Steven said, “We need to synchronize our watches.” 

 

Peridot sighed as she just wanted to start the ship and get this over with.  Amethyst and Peridot looked at their watches. 

 

“Alright,” Steven said, “Synchronize. 12AM Steven Time.” 

 

“We’re calling it Steven time?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“I prefer Peridot time,” Peridot said.

 

“Fine,” Steven said, “Crystal Gem time. I didn’t think it would be a big deal.” 

 

“Shall we go over the plan before we hit it into hyperdrive?” Amethyst said, “We need this to go perfectly. I am not coming back without Pearl.” 

 

“You’d rather be shattered trying to get Pearl, then fail and silently return to Earth?” Peridot asked. 

 

“Would I joke about this?’ Amethyst asked. 

 

“I don’t know,” Peridot said, “You and Pearl have an - what’s the word I’m looking for - combative? I think that’s it. Yes, combative relationship. I can never tell when you are insulting her in an endearing way or if it’s genuine hatred.” 

 

“It’s endearing, like at least seventy percent of the time,” Amethyst said. “Can we please just go over the plan and figure this shit out! Jeez. If one, small thing goes wrong, we are going to get our asses handed to us and I am not going to let that happen.” 

 

“She’s probably in The Cells,” Peridot said, “So we what we need to do is have me, a Peridot, deliver this pod to The Cells, accompanied by her Amethyst guard. We hack the computer, find out which floor Pearl and Sheena are on. Then, I will go to the basement where the power source is. As this is going on, Steven and Amethyst will get Pearl, which adds one more Gem to our team. Then you guys get Sheena and head to the roof. I’ll cut the power source to the building, which will cut off all power and make every door unusable. What a fire hazard. I get a ship and pick you guys up from the roof. It's a revised version of _Ocean 11's_ plot. Lapis' denial of my plan made me re-think it. Any questions?” 

 

"How do we know they didn’t take Sheena to the Zoo?” Steven asked. 

 

“My Amethyst peeps would have called,” Amethyst said. 

 

“Also, what if Pearl isn’t in The Cells?” Steven asked. 

 

“It’s the jail, Steven,” Amethyst said, “That’s where they take the ‘bad,’ gems. And Pearl is a ‘criminal,’” Amethyst used air-quotes, “so where else would they take her?” 

 

“Well...” Peridot said, “They could, ‘give' her back...” 

 

“Give her back to where?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“To who she, you know...” Peridot said, “Where they believe she belongs...” 

 

“Shit.” Amethyst said. 

 

“How are we supposed to find her if they did that?!” Steven asked. 

 

“I’m going to go into this with full confidence she is in The Cells,” Peridot said. “We have one plan. There is no plan B. We need to follow this plan! No deviations. If Pearl isn’t there, then we just save the human.” 

 

“How do I get this through your triangle-shaped head. I’m not leaving without Pearl,”Amethyst said. 

 

 

* * *

 

Pearl stood in an elegantly decorated room; adorned with gold, swirling designs on the bedrock walls. White Diamond sat at a table with an emerald; a high ranking green gem.  

 

As White Diamond and the Emerald talked, Pearl silently sulked next to Emerald’s pearl, whose form, a simple green dress, was not nearly as frivolous as Pearl's. Emerald's pearl was giving Pearl a side-eyed look as they stared straight ahead. 

 

“Psst,” Emerald’s Pearl said. 

 

“Yes?” Pearl whispered, still looking ahead. 

 

“Heard you’re looking for a human.” 

 

“And? She’s in The Cells. There’s no way I could--” 

 

“What if there was?” Emerald’s Pearl asked. 

 

“What do you mean?” 

 

Emerald’s Pearl remained quiet for a moment, observing the gossipy conversation between White Diamond and Emerald. 

 

“Are you really her?” Emerald’s Pearl whispered to Pearl. 

 

“Look, I am really confused about what you’re--” 

 

“Are you really the Renegade Pearl from eight thousand years ago? The one who didn’t belong to anyone?” Emerald's Pearl whispered. 

 

Pearl nodded. This was jarring. She imagined they had used her escape with Rose Quartz as a cautionary tale to the other pearls. 

 

"I thought you were a legend," Emerald’s Pearl restrained a smile as her eyes widened. “Did you really take out three jaspers right at Blue Diamond’s court?”

 

“Um, well, yes I did,” Pearl blushed blue, embarrassed, but flattered. 

 

“Know you’re not alone,” Emerald’s Pearl said. She watched White Diamond and Emerald begin to kiss each other on the cheek goodbye. Emerald’s Pearl, shook Pearl’s hand goodbye. Pearl felt a small stone in the green pearl's hand. She took the piece of stone and clutched her hand around it. 

 

Emerald’s Pearl curtseyed goodbye and followed Emerald out of the room. 

 

Pearl snuck a peek at what was in her hand; uncurling her fingers slightly, etched into the stone was the symbol of Rose Quartz’s battle flag. She couldn't believe it. Why would a pearl have something with Rose's symbol on it? How did Emerald's pearl know who Pearl even was. Peridot had no idea who the Crystal Gems were when she came to Earth. 

 

"Pearl?" White Diamond said. 

 

Pearl inconspicuously hid the stone etched with Rose's symbol in her gem. She turned around and faced White Diamond, "Yes, My Diamond?" 

 

"Let's go to the tower balcony. We have some matters to discuss." White Diamond headed toward the door. 

 

"Yes, my Diamond," Pearl ran to the door. She swiped left on the touchpad. The door opened. Pearl bowed and gestured to the door. "After you, My Diamond." 

 

"Good. You're really improving, My Pearl. I knew you were just rusty. Soon you'll be good as you were before," White Diamond said before exiting the room. 

 


	7. That's it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and kudos! At some point, I will probably go back and fix the formatting so it's uniform.

Pearl sat on the edge of tower balcony. Long ago, you could see the stars from here. Now she just saw the lights from the city obscuring the sky with their glow.  White Diamond stood on the balcony next to her, the city lights shining on her shimmering form. 

 

_Pearl was standing on the tower balcony with Rose, leaning against her shoulder. Rose’s light was so close. Pearl wished she could be part of it._

 

_“So that one is Earth?” Pearl pointed to a bright star in the sky. “Do you like it there?”_

 

_“I love it there. There’s dirt, sky, water, the beach, humans, and flowers that all smell so differently. Everything repairs itself there. Things...change. Time matters. Earth, well, it grows and becomes something, not entirely different, but a variation of itself. Like the Earth is always learning and correcting it’s own mistakes. One way they measure time there is through sunsets. It’s where the sky becomes four or five colors at once. Light blending itself into one another. It’s just...it’s so...”_

 

_“Transcendent?” Pearl asked._

 

_Rose nodded. “So transcendent...The Diamonds just see it as another star to add to their gallery, but it’s so much more than that.”_

 

_Pearl sat in silence. She knew the plans for Earth. They, the Diamonds, were going to suck all of the beauty, the change, the life, out of Earth’s core until it was a shell._

 

_Sometimes Pearl felt like a shell. She didn’t want that to happen to a planet._

 

_Pearl wanted to go there with Rose._

 

_“I didn’t want to come here, but I’m glad I did.” Rose said._

 

For the first time since she had been back at Homeworld, Pearl actually looked at White Diamond. She was the same; a harsh face, angular, but also beautiful in an intimidating way. Her eyes had this way of feigning an exaggerated expression with every word. She wore a glittering cape embroidered with the same design Pearl had on her ballet leotard. 

 

“Do you remember when we took Planet 456X-B from Yellow Diamond?” White Diamond asked. 

 

“I recall she was having trouble fighting off those snake-like creatures that inhabited the planet. They kept burrowing into all the designated areas for future kindergartens,” Pearl laughed, “You showed up to her base on the planet and asked her if she had thought of creating vibrations in the ground to keep them away.” 

 

“And then I set up the device to keep them away,” White Diamond said, “no more snake-creatures! She flipped when I told her I was taking the planet because of her incompetence, didn’t she?” 

 

“It was the obvious answer to the problem,” Pearl said. She looked down at the street and saw some Amethysts on the street goofing off and roughhousing. She wished her Amethyst were here to make snide remarks about her outfit. It was, in Pearl’s opinion, deserving. She looked ridiculous. 

 

“That was number fifteen, Pearl,” Yellow Diamond said. “What a milestone. And you were there for it.” 

 

“We destroyed that planet,” Pearl said sadly. They sucked all the resources until the core was gone; a shallow shell. It collapsed into itself. 

 

“My Pearl, you know we only target planets that have a short shelf-life. Use up the minerals while we can and get out.” 

 

“But what if the sapphires are wrong?” 

 

“Sapphires are hardly ever wrong,” White Diamond said. She saw Pearl’s lips curled into a frown and said, “I’ve been thinking it over and I know from your memories you really seem to love that Tiny half-Rose human. What if we kept him and your full human in the Zoo after we blow up the planet? They’ll be safe there.” 

 

Pearl thought of the Zoo as this disgusting place. Men, women, children...gems shouldn’t be locked up and look on as entertainment. Pearl needed to get out of this place. She needed to earn White Diamond’s trust and then make her move at an opportune moment. 

 

“So you are going to blow it up,” Pearl said. “Why?” 

 

“The cluster is our greatest experiment; fusing gem shards back together. Imagine the possibilities,” White Diamond said. “Imagine what we could do if we succeed.” 

 

“You could fix her,” Pearl said. 

 

“She’s in so much pain, Pearl,” White Diamond said. “She’s in thousands of pieces and I can’t fix her. Understand, this is so much more than avenging Rose Quartz’s legacy. This is my sister.” 

 

“I understand, My Diamond, ” Pearl said. She sighed as she looked out into the city. All large screens were projecting a Lapis Lazuli delivering a news report. 

 

“If you agree to dance for everyone, I will take the chains off,” White Diamond said. 

 

“I’ll dance for everyone if I can see the human,” Pearl said. 

 

“Deal,” White Diamond said. “I’ll write up the contract and you may see your human after you dance.” White Diamond gave Pearl a serious look, “There’s a reason I haven’t been able to find a replacement for you. None of them can dance like you can. Make it good, Pearl. Show them why I saved you from being shattered. Make them see in you what I see.” 

 

Pearl looked at the obscure sky, yellow with the lights of the city and wished she could see Earth. 

 

* * *

 

 

Amethyst peered out the Roaming Eye’s window. She wanted to see a glimpse of where most gems called “home.” 

 

“That’s it?” Amethyst said. She saw a large rock-based planet. Mountains shot up from the ground and the Capital City was carved in and out of the mountain; part of the city embedded into the mountain, the other half covered with skyscrapers sat at the base. 

 

“I wanna see!” Steven said, his voice muffled from being hidden inside one of Peridot’s marble robots. 

 

“Told you it wasn’t that interesting,” Peridot said. “Let’s land and get this over with before they catch us and decide the universe wouldn’t miss one less Peridot and an Amethyst.” 

 

“So I don’t get to see the gems’ home planet?” Steven asked. 

 

“Unless you want them to crush you into tiny pieces, then no, you don’t,” Amethyst said. As they flew closer to the planet, Amethyst saw how large the Capital City was. It looked like it was the size of five Empire Cities. “Wow...” she said, “How are we supposed to find Pearl and Sheena in there?” 

 

“If you know where to look,” Peridot said, “it’s pretty simple.” Peridot slowed the ship down. “Get ready to shape shift your size. We’ll have to hide in certain checkpoints so you can take a break.”

 

“Got it,” Amethyst said. 

 

They boarded a large docking bay in a metal structure that jetted from the side of a mountain. Amethyst shape shifted her size as the ship was slowly taken in to the docking bay. 

 

The doors to the ship opened. A Zircon accompanied by several rubies entered the ship. 

 

“State you purpose and reason for boarding this dock,” Zircon said. 

 

“My Amethyst associate and I have retrieved several, I mean one, lost retrieval pod on the planet called...er, Mars,” Peridot said. 

 

“Good,” the Zircon said. She walked up to the marble robot Steven was hiding in and examined it. 

 

“It will need to be repaired of course,” Peridot said. “Currently it’s out of commission.” 

 

“Makes sense,” the Zircon said. 

 

“I intend to take it to my workspace and repair it,” Peridot said. 

 

Peridot stood up and started to push the marble pod toward the door. 

 

One of the rubies looked up and down at Peridot, “What happened to your limb extenders?” 

 

“My limb extenders?” Peridot said, nervously. 

 

“They appear to be discolored. Rusty perhaps?” the Ruby asked. 

 

“Mars is called the Red planet. Am I right? Dusty and stormy weather. You know it’s not good for metal,” Peridot said. 

 

Amethyst stood by, trying to hold her form. “So we’re gonna head out so she can oil up her limb enhancers and I can get to doing whatever Amethysts do on Homeworld.” 

 

The Ruby furrowed her brow in suspicion. Amethyst began to sweat. It was over, she thought. They couldn’t even get through the docking bay. 

 

“Okay!” the Ruby said. “Good luck with all that!” 

 

“Thanks!” Amethyst said, pushing a frozen with fear Peridot out of the ship. Amethyst grabbed the marble pod by one hand and dragged it out of the ship. 

 

They walked through the docking bay, they saw several large ships docked. Amethyst saw the hand ships typically used by the Diamonds being prepared for some sort of mission. Rubies and Peridots were loading supplies onto the giant hand ships. 

 

“Why are they preparing those for launch?” she whispered to Peridot. 

 

“Who knows,” Peridot said. “Let’s just get out of here before we end up shattered.”

 

Amethyst followed Peridot to the exit; two large glass doors. When she saw what was through the doors, she felt like she was stuck in wet sand. “Shit, dude,” she said in awe as she stared out the glass doors and onto the bustling city.  

 

Peridot forcefully grabbed her hand and pulled Amethyst through the doors. 

 

Amethyst found herself on a busy street buzzing with all different types of gems; Amethysts, Rubies, Jaspers, Peridots, a Sapphire with a Pearl, and other gems she had never seen before. A large, floating screen with a Lapis Lazuli loomed over them  between the skyscrapers. 

 

“Where are they holding her?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“You see that large, scary, building of imminent doom in the distance? The one next to the mountain?” 

 

Amethyst looked toward the intimidating mountain she saw from the ship. She assumed that was the older part of the Capital City. Next to it was a skinny, dark tower that looked like a stalagmite in a cave. “Yeah.” 

 

“She’s probably in there,” Peridot said. She observed her surroundings. “We need to get you someplace where you can take a break from shape shifting.” 

 

Peridot began walking forward, pushing the marble pod forward. 

 

“I’m fine,” Amethyst said. 

 

“You’re visibly exasperated,” Peridot said. 

 

“Fine. Where can I go?” 

 

Peridot guided Amethyst into a building. It was what a restaurant would be if they existed on Homeworld. Gems gathered at tables, talking. That was it. Amethyst thought about how it was a shame they didn’t have food here. She craved a three day old egg, mayonnaise, and motor oil sandwich. 

 

Peridot lead her to a cleaning closet. A Pearl, dressed in a simple brown dress, was gathering cleaning supplies from the closet. 

 

“Pearl, we need use of this closet. Move out of our way,” Peridot said. 

 

“Perri!” Amethyst said. “That was harsh, dude.” 

 

“I was in error,” the Pearl said. “I shall face the wall and close my eyes in the corner until you superior gems are done using the closet for you desired purpose.” 

 

“You don’t have to-” Amethyst began to say. 

 

“Very good,” Peridot said. She shoved Amethyst and the marble pod containing Steven into the closet and closed the door. 

 

In the closet, Amethyst shrunk down to her normal size and lifted the lid off the marble pod. Steven, red from the claustrophobic space said, “Is it awesome?!” 

 

“It's creepy and there's no food,” Amethyst said. She sighed, “You should see how Peridot just treated a Pearl out there.” 

 

“There’s another Pearl?!” 

 

“There are thousands,” Amethyst said. “I saw one with a sapphire.” 

 

“Are you sure they’re not our Pearl?” 

 

“Definitely,” Amethyst cringed, shivering, “This place gives me bad vibes, dude. We need to get the hell out of here and back to Earth as soon as possible. They have a giant screen giving out the news to people! It’s like they force everyone to listen to the news! Who knows if it’s even real.”

 

“No _Crying Breakfast Friends_ type shows?” Steven asked with a crack in his voice. 

 

“What’s with your voice, dude? You just sounded like a crow I accidentally stepped on,” Amethyst said. 

 

“Did it sound weird?” 

 

Amethyst nodded. “Must be nerves. We need to GTFO ASAP. Understand?” 

 

Steven nodded. He went back into the marble pod. Amethyst put the lid back on and shape shifted her size to a large quartz. 

 

When she left the janitor’s closet, she felt Peridot grab her hand and pull her away. Amethyst saw the Pearl turn around from the wall. “Thank you!” Amethyst said waving as they left the building. 

 

“Don’t do that,” Peridot whispered as they walked down the street. “All they need is one of us to defy the social order and they have reason to put us in The Cells.” 

 

“Isn’t that where we want to go?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“Yeah. To break in. Not as prisoners!” Peridot said. 

 

Peridot began to guide them closer to the cells, zig-zagging through a crowd of rubies. 

 

Suddenly, a Lapis Lazuli appeared on the large floating screen. 

 

“White Diamond is pleased to announce her newly returned Pearl will be dancing for the public,” the Lapis said. 

 

“Newly returned?” Amethyst said. 

 

“Uh oh,” Peridot said. 

 

“Uh oh?” Amethyst said, alarmed. 

“Keep in mind this event has not successfully occurred in eight thousand years, as White Diamond did not see any of the replacements fit to surpass the talents of this particular Pearl,” the Lapis said. 

 

“Can’t be her,” Amethyst said, “Pearl is too defiant to work for one of those--” 

 

“Clods?” Peridot said with a smirk.

 

“Exactly.” 

 

“I dunno though,” Peridot said, worried. 

 

“At this event, White Diamond’s Pearl will be renouncing her ties to the coward Rose Quartz and she will promise to testify against this traitor of a gem in formal court.” 

 

“No.” Amethyst said. “No. No.” She shook her head. She refused to believe that White Diamond, of all gems had Pearl. “How are we supposed to get Pearl back from a Diamond?!”

 

“She’s gone,” Peridot said. “We get the human and go back to Earth.” 

 

“I told you that I’m not leaving without her. She wouldn’t leave without me and I’m not--” 

 

Peridot covered Amethyst’s mouth and motioned for her to quiet down. She led Amethyst into an alley and said with a harsh whisper, “We cannot get her back from that Diamond.” 

 

“Pearl would get me. She would get you. She would get any of us. We need to--” 

 

“White Diamond isn’t just ‘some,’ Diamond,” Peridot said. “She’s absolutely terrifying. Rumor says she uses mind games and complex legal documents to intentionally screw gems over. That's how she's gained control of the Diamond Authority.” 

 

“I don’t see how she’s any more terrifying than Yellow Diamond,” Amethyst said. “If anything, she seems less intimidating.”

 

“She doesn’t use force in the traditional sense. She wont poof you or draw a weapon. At least not right away. Instead, she’ll toy with you. If you faced her, she’d invite you to sit and discuss the matter with you and all of a sudden, you’ve just signed a contract admitting all guilt that’s admissible in court and you’re on your way to being formally shattered.” Peridot slumped down against the alley wall. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t think of how to save Pearl from this.” 

 

Amethyst looked down at the marble pod where Steven was hiding. She then walked to the edge of the alley and stared up at the large screen with the Lapis Lazuli repeating the same newscast over and over. “I have an idea.” 

 

* * *

 

Garnet, Lapis, and Connie stood inside the Beta Kindergarten Control room, looking through the old computer files for clues to decipher how to defeat the Cluster. 

 

“Steven needs to bubble it again,” Lapis said. 

 

“It has obviously popped,” Garnet said. “If the cluster takes form, the entire Earth and everything on it will be destroyed...Bubbling the cluster again wont solve the problem. it’s just temporary fix.” 

 

“Like a bandaid?” Connie asked. 

 

“Exactly,” Garnet said. 

 

“Our options are limited and the only two gems who successfully stopped it last time are on a completely different planet,” Lapis said. “I told them not to go and--” 

 

“We can’t blame them for going,” Garnet said. She scanned the files in the old computer. “There’s nothing here showing how to keep the cluster in the gems.” 

 

Connie hugged Steven’s sword and wondered if he would come back in time. 

 

“What keeps you inside your gem?” Connie asked with caution. “When you, you know, poof?” 

 

Garnet tipped her head to her side, “I don’t like being in my gems. It means I’m alone.” 

 

“I was in my gem for thousands of years. After a while it becomes...depressing,” Lapis said, hugging her knees.  

 

“Pearl likes being in her gem,” Garnet said. “She likes the solitude. It allows her to concentrate on her form and take inventory of the objects she’s holding.” 

 

“Trust me,” Lapis said, “there comes a time when you no longer want to concentrate.” 

 

The Earth rumbled. Connie crouched down to stay stable on her feet.  

 

“We’re running out of time,” Garnet said. "Perhaps we could try drilling into the earth and bubbling it again to delay it." 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Amethyst forms a plan. Before she is scheduled to dance, Pearl negotiates a contract with White Diamond and then tracks down some answers about the stone with she received with Rose's sigil on it.


	8. "Rose Quartz, Coward Traitor," A Play in Five Acts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl attempts to remove any loopholes in White Diamond's contract. Amethyst meets some new friends. Pearl finds out how they're powering the city.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there definitely some spelling/grammar errors in this chapter. I'm going to be periodically fixing them.

In a small office, Pearl browsed her way through the hologram touch screen monitor displaying her contract with White Diamond. 

 

“I don’t like this sentence,” Pearl said. 

 

“Which sentence?” White Diamond asked. 

 

“In the event of an escape, the humans will be sent back to whom they belong to; White Diamond,” Pearl said. “They don’t belong to you.” 

 

“You belong to me. They belong to you. Therefore anything that belongs to you belongs to me.” 

 

“But they don’t belong to me. They don’t belong to anyone,” Pearl said.

 

“I will not remove it.” 

 

Pearl sat back in her chair, “Fine. Then I wont dance. I wonder what they’ll say about you then.” 

 

“What do you mean?” 

 

“White Diamond’s Pearl can’t even open doors. One wonders why she keeps that Pearl when superior ones are surely available to be made to her specifications.” 

 

“You don’t want me to send you someplace where you will never see light again, do you?” 

 

“I would gladly go there if it meant I wouldn’t have to have this ridiculous form!” Pearl gestured to her ballet leotard and tutu. “Don’t even get me started on the hair.” She pointed to her curled hair pinned up to one side of her head.

 

“This is supposed to be a negotiation, Pearl! Not you giving up!” 

 

“Fine,” Pearl said. “Remove this sentence or the deal is off.” 

 

White Diamond swiped right across the screen; erasing the sentence.. 

 

“Thank you, MY Diamond.” Pearl began scrolling through the contract. “Also, there’s a spelling error on page thirteen.” 

 

White Diamond squinted at the screen. “That’s a typo.” 

 

“‘In accordance,’ and ‘in defiance,’ are not nearly the same in gem,” Pearl said. 

 

“Fix it then,” White Diamond said with gritted teeth. “In accordance is correct.” 

 

Pearl began to fix the error and then rewrote the sentence. 

 

“Just like old times, don’t you think?’ White Diamond asked. “You fix my grammar. I watch you fix my grammar.” 

 

“Old times did not involve me writing a contract that may or may not have a hidden article leading me to my own doom.” Pearl saw White Diamond staring at her with a smirk.

 

“Has anyone ever told you how cute you are, Pearl?”  

 

“In fact someone has,” Pearl said, annoyed. “You have. Several times.” 

 

White Diamond lifted Pearl’s chin up with her hand. “Care to take a break?” 

 

Pearl shook her head away from White Diamond’s hand. “Not a chance.” She scanned through the document. “Tomorrow, I will dance for all the common gems to prove your ridiculous point, but I will never dance with you again.” 

 

“We’ll see, Pearl,” White Diamond said. “Just remember you will be with me forever and forever is a long time.” 

 

“There is no such thing as forever,” Pearl said. 

 

“What makes you say that?” 

 

“Remnants of black holes from another universe that possibly existed before the Big Bang,” Pearl said absently as she typed. “I’m rephrasing Article Fifteen, Section LL.” 

 

“Go ahead.” 

 

“I know what you’re doing,” Pearl said. 

 

“And what is that?” 

 

“You want me to fuse with you, so you can try to access any items I may be holding.” 

 

“Can’t it just be because I miss it?” 

 

Pearl kept her eyes on the computer screen, still reading the contract. “I told you. Rose disposed of that sword.” 

 

“Really?” White Diamond said in disbelief. 

 

“Rose...Rose didn’t trust me as much as I thought,” Pearl said, looking down at the floor.   “I thought I knew all her secrets. It turns out she didn’t...didn’t love me as much as I thought?” Pearl said it like a question, still unsure of Rose’s reasons for keeping important matters from her. “It may still exist, but I wouldn’t know where it is.” 

 

“I’m truly sorry to hear that,” White Diamond said as she observed Pearl’s lips curve into a frown. 

 

_Pearl was passive by choice._

 

_She wanted to act irrationally._

 

_But that was not an option._

 

_White Diamond would punish her.  Pearl feared White Diamond would make her dance forever; take something Pearl loves and turn it into hell._

 

_That would be White Diamond’s deranged satisfaction._

 

_One day something cracked inside of Pearl. She saw Rose Quartz, the most understanding, passionate gem she had ever met be called a traitor in the Great Hall._

 

_“Please, this planet is unique. The variety of life on it exceeds any predictions we made in the pre-testing stage. We need to stop the development of any new kindergartens and declare this planet a refuge for all life that exists on it,” Rose said._

 

_White Diamond sat in quiet contemplation on her giant thrown. Pearl stood nervously next to her; twiddling her fingers together._

 

_“My Pearl!” White Diamond said._

 

_“Yes, My Diamond?” Pearl asked._

 

_“Bring up the legislation regarding this planet.”_

 

_“Yes, My Diamond,” Pearl said. She scampered over to a large computer and brought up the hologram screen._

 

_“Article Twelve, Section A,” White Diamond said._

 

_Pearl scanned the document for the correct section. "Found it."_

 

_“Good,” White Diamond said. “Read it aloud.”_

 

_Pearl gave Rose a look of apprehension. She cleared her throat. “The leadership of this planet, designated as XZ-32, will be delegated to Pink Diamond. Any inquiries regarding the state of this planet should be reported to Pink Diamond, who is solely responsible for all provisions concerning this planet.”_

 

_“Article Forty-three, Section X,” White Diamond said._

 

_Pearl scrolled through to the section. “Any parties attempting to seize control or delegate the decision making powers to another gem is con...” Pearl trailed off as she read the remainder of the sentence. She didn’t remember this being in this legislation in the final draft._

 

_“Keep reading, My Pearl,” White Diamond said._

 

_Pearl breathed in deep. She held back her tears, “Is conspiring against the Great Diamond Authority, thus committing treason.”_

 

_Rose’s eyes widened in complete shock. “I didn’t know.” She shook her head. “I thought it would be okay since you’re a Diamond!”_

 

_“Well, I am a gem. You are asking me to make decisions for a planet I am not responsible for. Technically you are conspiring against my sister. Do you understand the consequences of--” White Diamond began to say._

 

_“That wasn’t in the original document!” Pearl suddenly yelled._

 

_The entire court began to gasp and murmur amongst themselves; a Pearl just interrupted a Diamond._

 

_“Excuse me, My Pearl?” White Diamond tipped her head to the left._

 

_“I-I proofread the document. This wasn’t here when we originally wrote it up,” Pearl said._

 

_“When we wrote it up? Pearl you must be mistaken. I would never ask you to assist in the drafting of legislation. You make mistakes sometimes. Isn’t that right, Pearl? Perhaps this is one of your mistakes.”_

 

_Pearl didn’t answer. She felt her knees shaking as she looked up at White Diamond, whose eyes were engulfed in rage._

 

_White Diamond put her hand down for Pearl to get on. “Get on my hand, Pearl, before you make a grave mistake. Understand?”_

 

_Pearl, with her head staring down at the floor, walked onto White Diamond’s hand. White Diamond brought Pearl up to her eye line. “Let’s try this again. Did you make a mistake, Pearl, sweetie?”_

 

_“Yes, My Diamond,” Pearl said. “I was mistaken. I apologize for my outburst. It was out of line. I am just a Pearl and I am not worthy enough to speak my mind. That honor is only given to gems more deserving than I am.”_

 

_“Thank you, My Pearl,” White Diamond said, keeping Pearl in her hand. “Now let’s get down to the brass tax. What you’re suggesting, Rose Quartz,” White Diamond said, “is treason. What gave you the nerve to go over Pink Diamond’s command and come directly to me?”_

 

_“Pink Diamond does not understand what is at stake here. We cannot drain the natural resources of that planet,” Rose said, standing her ground despite the look of horror on her face._

 

_“A sapphire has already informed me that the humans will wreck it themselves within the next twenty-thousand years. I see no difference in the resources being drained now by us.”_

 

_“It’s not like that,” Rose said. “It’s a place where--”_

 

_“I do not allow it,” White Diamond said. “Escort this Rose Quartz out of the Grand Hall so the Jaspers can take her to The Cells.”_

 

_“We wont listen to you,” Rose said. “We wont let Pink Diamond destroy this wonderful planet!”_

 

_“Who is ‘we,’?” White Diamond asked. “Because the only gem I see here protesting Pink Diamond is you, Rose Quartz ."_

 

_For a brief moment Rose looked at Pearl. Pearl quickly averted her eyes and stared at the ground._

 

_“I am Rose Quartz,” Rose said, “And if no one else will be the Protector for the Earth, then I will be. I will not allow Pink Diamond to destroy My Planet!”_

 

_“This is quite adorable, but also embarrassing for you,” White Diamond said, “Look around, Rose Quartz. You’re alone. No one cares about Earth, but you.” White Diamond waved her hand, “Take this traitor out of my Great Hall.”_

 

* * *

 

 

Peridot, Amethyst and Steven sat inside a dark dumpster; the only place they could let Steven out of the marble pod and Amethyst could safely be her normal size. 

 

“Hey buddy,” Amethyst said with a gentle voice to Steven after she took the cover off off the marble pod. “So I got something to tell you, but you have to promise not to freak out.”

 

“I can handle it. Stop talking to me like I’m some kid,” Steven said. His voice cracked as he said “kid.” 

 

“You need to get that weird voice problem under control,” Peridot said. 

 

“I don’t know what’s wrong!” Steven said, his voice craking again. 

 

“Here’s the thing,” Amethyst said, cringing, “Pearl now belongs to White Diamond.” 

 

“What?!” Steven said, he began to try and get out of the marble pod.. “We need to save her. We need to get out of this dumpster and--” 

 

“Not so fast,” Amethyst said, putting her hand on his shoulder. “It’s not going to be easy. You and Perri are gonna stay here. I’m going to try and get access to Pearl.” 

 

“How do you propose on doing that?” Peridot asked. 

 

“I’m going to improvise,” Amethyst said. “I’ll get someone to let me get access to the palace.” 

 

“Good luck with that,” Peridot said with sarcasm. 

 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Steven asked. 

 

“It’s my only idea,” Amethyst said. “Promise me you’ll stay here?” 

 

“Promise,” Steven nodded. 

 

Amethyst nodded back, then shape shifted her size. She opened the dumpster cover and walked out into the streets. She spotted some amethysts talking to each other on the streets. 

 

“Hey peeps!” Amethyst said. 

 

“How’s it going?” One of the Amethysts said. “Hey, you going to that White Diamond Party?” 

 

“Of course I am? Miss a party the best Diamond is throwing?” Amethyst said casually, “Not in this universe.” 

 

“Cool. We’re heading over there right now,” one of the amethysts said. 

 

Amethyst smiled and thought about how she might have just experienced the luckiest moment of she would ever have in her entire life. 

 

* * *

 

 

 

To amuse herself and celebrate the fact that she had a Pearl worthy of public exposition, White Diamond had high ranking gems over to her wing of the Great Diamond Authority Palace for a pre-party before Pearl’s performance that would take place the next day. 

 

Pearl watched White Diamond greet and talk to the other gems at the party; keeping up appearances. A Lapis Lazuli appeared to be documenting the entire thing with a small wailing stone that appeared to be much more updated than the one the Crystal Gems had. 

 

She stood off to the side with the other pearls. As she looked down the line of the pearls standing off to the side, she made eye contact with Emerald’s pearl from earlier; she recognized the green dress. The Green Pearl gestured with her head for Pearl to follow her down the hall. 

 

The Green Pearl began to walk down the hall. No one seemed to notice she left; they were too occupied with the party. 

 

Pearl waited for White Diamond to be distracted by greeting an Agate and a Spinel and darted after the Green Pearl. She shuffled down the hall, carefully walking so she did not trip over the chains on her ankles. 

 

As she wandered around the corner, she felt someone grab her shoulder and pull her into another room. It was dark and she could barely see. The phantom pushed her against the wall and put their hand over her mouth. 

 

When Pearl’s eyes adjusted to the dark, she saw the gem holding her against the wall was the Green Pearl. Behind her were other pearls, all of varying colors. She was in a small parlor room; with a seating area for socialization. 

 

“Show them you are who you say you are?” Green Pearl said. 

 

Pearl tried to shake her head, but the Green Pearl held Pearl’s head in place. Pearl shrugged her shoulders. 

 

The Green Pearl raised her hand, which had her white pearl gem placed on her palm. She then created a projection hologram of the Emerald she belonged to. 

 

“Show them something only you could have seen,” the Green Pearl said as she stopped the hologram projection.  

 

Pearl allowed a hologram of Rose Quartz to be projected from her gem. “The Diamonds create the illusion of power. WE are just as powerful as them. WE outnumber them! We care more than them! And we will not let THEM tell US what to do!” the projection of Rose said. 

 

The Green Pearl released Pearl from her grip and took her hand off Pearl’s mouth. The Green Pearl turned to the other pearls behind her and said with a smirk, “Told you guys she was real.” 

 

“How do we know she didn’t make that up?” a pearl wearing a fancy red dress said. 

 

“I assure you I didn’t,” Pearl said. 

 

“Can you really summon a weapon?” a pearl wearing a plan purple tutu said. 

 

“Well yes. It’s actually not that complicated if you concentrate on what type of weapon you want to create,” Pearl said. 

 

“I don’t know anything about weapons,” a pearl with a white leotard said meekly. 

 

“Guys!” the Green Pearl said. “We have limited time! You all know that they’re going to make us put on a freaking five act play for them in The Great Hall very soon. We need to get to the point of this meeting.” 

 

“May I ask what’s exactly going on here?” Pearl asked. 

 

“We’re the resistance,” Green pearl said beaming. She gestured to the other five pearls standing in the room. 

 

“There’s only six of you?” Pearl asked. 

 

“Oh, there are many more,” Green Pearl said. “It’s just hard to organize for a meeting with all members for, well, obvious reasons.” 

 

“I see,” Pearl nodded. 

 

“We need you to help us,” the Green Pearl said. 

 

“How?” Pearl said with almost a half-laugh. “I’m all chained up. No one trusts me. We’re severely outnumbered on Homeworld and--” 

 

“We want Homeworld to be a place where ALL gems can be whoever they want to be. Don’t you want that? You fought for that on Earth,” the red pearl said. 

 

“And that begins with,” the Green Pearl said, “rescuing our fallen gems.” 

 

“Fallen gems?” 

 

“How do you think they’re powering the city?” the Green Pearl asked. 

 

“Electricity?” Pearl said as it was the obvious answer. 

 

“Photons,” the purple pearl said.

 

Pearl’s face dropped. “No. No. They’re not really--” 

 

“Harvesting power from thousands of poofed gems in the Basement of The Cells?” Green Pearl asked, raising an eyebrow. “They can’t shatter us, so they use the ‘bad,’ pearls’ gems to power the city. They probably have others there too. Any gem they can get their hands on to add more and more power for the city to keep the lights on at all times. They probably have rubies, amethysts, spinels, agates, even emeralds.”

 

“That’s why they’re afraid of us!” the red pearl said. “They can’t shatter us pearls and they know that’s a threat to them, so they poof us and harvest our power to light up the city.” 

 

“What do you want me to do?” Pearl asked. 

 

“Only Diamonds’ pearls are allowed to walk freely around the city,” the Green Pearl said. “We need you to go into The Cells and release the others.” 

 

“I don’t know if I can--” Pearl began to say. 

 

A pearl wearing an orange leotard ran into the room. “They’re going to make us perform now. Meeting over!” 

 

The other pearls ran out of the room. Green Pearl and Pearl were the only two left. 

 

“You’re our only hope,” the Green Pearl. “Gain her trust so she removes the chains and then you can release the gems. Then we can start an uprising," she said before she walked out of the room. 

 

Pearl looked around the parlor room and saw a large portrait of Pink Diamond hanging up. Her flowing pink hair blew in the wind as she stood on a grassy knoll with a sword, staring out onto the horizon with a menacing expression on her face. Next to Pink Diamond in the portrait was Pink Diamond’s pearl bowing at her feet. 

 

Pearl felt hopeless as she looked down on the chains on her ankles. She just wanted to be back at the Beach House playing Scrabble with Steven, Garnet, and Amethyst. 

 

* * *

 

 

Amethyst arrived with the other Amethysts who invited her to the swanky party. She scanned the room for Pearl. She was going to straight up kidnap Pearl from this party if she had to. 

 

“It’s nice to see some of My amethyst soldiers here,” Amethyst heard a voice behind her say.

 

Amethyst turned around and looked up a White Diamond towering over them. 

 

“You are by far the best Diamond to serve,” one of the amethysts said. 

 

“You are very welcome. I am lucky to have received the very best amethysts instead of the sub par ones watching the Human Zoo,” White Diamond smiled. 

 

Amethyst restrained herself from furrowing her brow. It was getting difficult holding her form in front of White Diamond. She began to sweat from the anxiety and pressure. She couldn’t blow this. She had to rescue Pearl. 

 

“Are you okay?’ White Diamond asked Amethyst. She tilted her head with genuine concern. “You don’t look well.” 

 

“I uh...” Amethyst began to say. “I am just in awe to be in the presence of you,” Amethyst managed to say. 

 

“I’m flattered, but also it is understandable,” White Diamond said. Her eyes began to dart around the Great Hall. “Excuse me, I need to find My Pearl.” White Diamond walked through the crowd of gems attending the party. Amethyst kept her eyes on White Diamond’s movement through the room. 

 

Amethyst spotted White Diamond across the room. White Diamond was tapping her large finger on the shoulder of a small, ornamentally dressed pearl. 

 

“Pearl,” Amethyst muttered to herself. As she began to walk across the room, a Spinel appeared in the middle of the Great Hall. All the high ranking gems gathered around the Spinel in a circle, leaving a large empty space. 

 

“And now for some entertainment,” the Spinel said. The party attendees clapped softly. “Eight thousand years ago. We fought against and won against the coward traitor Rose Quartz!” 

 

The gems clapped again, this time louder. 

 

“Let us revisit this victory tonight!” the Spinel said. She bowed and left the stage area. 

 

Seven pearls took the center stage. 

 

“I am Rose Quartz!” one of the Pearls said. She shape shifted into a perfect clone of Rose; only she was green. “And I WILL conquer Earth! The Diamonds should fear me, for I am more powerful than they!” 

 

Amethyst tuned the ‘play,’ out and wondered why her Pearl was not performing with the rest of them. She snuck through the crowd, still managing to hold her larger form. 

 

“As your pearl, Rose Quartz,” Amethyst heard one of the performing pearls said, “I do not know why I changed sides to serve under a traitor such as you, Rose Quartz. For I belong to the bravest, most beautiful Diamond in all the Universe. I see my error now.” 

 

Amethyst paused as she navigated through the crowd. She saw that some of the performing pearls had shape shifted into other gems as part of the play. Then it hit her; the reason Pearl avoided shape shifting. She had been forced to shape shift for the amusement of the gems on Homeworld. 

 

Amethyst tried to not let her emotions get the better of her. She shuffled closer to Pearl with short, inconspicuous strides. She felt like a spider trying to attack a bird. 

 

She managed to scoot sideways enough so she was next to Pearl. Amethyst looked over at the fancy design on Pearl’s leotard and the ballet tutu. 

 

“I’m looking for my friend, but I can’t seem to find her. She has pink-orange hair and a star on her blue dress,” Amethyst whispered while looking forward. 

 

Pearl’s eyes widened, “Amethyst!” she whispered with a hiss. “What are you doing here?” 

 

“Uh, to rescue you. duh.” Amethyst said. 

 

“Go home. Go back to Earth,” Pearl said, still looking ahead. 

 

“No. I travelled all the way here and I’m not leaving here without you. I will freaking nap you from this place if I have to.” 

 

“You shouldn’t be here,” Pearl said, her voice shook. “Go back to Earth now. I will be fine.” 

 

“You don’t look fine to me,” Amethyst said. 

 

“I’m doing quite well,” Pearl said. “The core is not, if you understand what I’m saying.” 

 

“I know,” Amethyst said with gritted teeth. 

 

“That’s why I need you to go home as soon as possible,” Pearl said.  

 

For a moment Pearl stayed silent. Amethyst looked at pearl and then at White Diamond, who was schmoozing with other gems who were complimenting White Diamond on what a great pearl she had. 

 

“Amethyst, please for once in this century listen to me,” Pearl said. “Go home. Protect Steven and protect the Earth."

 

“Fine. I’ll go outside and tell Steven that Pearl is never coming back to Earth. She’s gone to the dark side,” Amethyst said. 

 

“Steven is here?!” Pearl asked with a harsh whisper. “You both need to go home. NOW.” 

 

“Not without you,” Amethyst said. 

 

“I can’t leave,” Pearl said. She motioned down to the chains on her ankles. 

 

“Oh, P,” Amethyst said with a crack in her voice. 

 

Pearl shuffled her weight back and forth. “I’m okay. Alright?” 

 

“You don’t look okay,” Amethyst said with tears in her eyes. 

 

“Control your emotions,” Pearl said with a slight, sad whimper. “You can’t give yourself away.” 

 

Amethyst nodded and straightened her shoulders. She looked toward the stage area, where the propaganda play was still being performed. 

 

“Come and see me dance tomorrow,” Pearl said. “I wont have any chains on then.” 

 

“I don’t want to wait,” Amethyst said. “Let’s leave now.” 

 

“We will have little to no success escaping if we do this now,” Pearl said. “I can’t run.” 

 

“I’ll carry you,” Amethyst said. 

 

“Come see me dance tomorrow at my so-called debut exhibition,” Pearl repeated. “When I’m dancing, I will give you the signal.” 

 

“What’s the signal?” Amethyst asked with a whisper. 

 

“You’ll know when you see it,” Pearl said. 

 

“Why aren’t you in this load of crap play?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“I am not to perform until my debut tomorrow,” Pearl said, rolling her eyes. "Also it's in poor taste to perform in a play that has a character based yourself in it."

 

Amethyst allowed herself to turn her head and look at Pearl. “You look like a doily.” 

 

Pearl paused for a moment and then said, “I know.” She then began to laugh. At first it was a small snicker, but it manifested itself into a loud, raucous cackle. 

 

The pearls performing the propaganda play paused at the sound of the loud laughter. Eventually everyone at the party was staring at Pearl. 

 

“Pearl!” White Diamond said. Her hoarse yell echoed throughout the Great Hall, but Pearl didn’t stop. Pearl knelt down on the floor, grabbing her stomach from the laughter. Amethyst began to slowly step away from Pearl. 

 

“What is the meaning of this?” White Diamond asked. 

 

“I-I am so very sorry MY Diamond,” Pearl said as she tried to clamp her lips together to prevent a giggle. Pearl smirked, trying not to continuing laughing. 

 

“Are you tired?” White Diamond asked Pearl. 

 

“So very tired, My Diamond. I apologize for the outburst,” Pearl said. 

 

White Diamond turned around to her party guests and said, “She’s tired. I apologize for my Pearl’s inappropriate behavior.”

 

“You have so much patience with her, My Diamond!” a Spinel said. Everyone at the party clapped for White Diamond. 

 

White Diamond put her hand on Pearl’s back and gently guided Pearl out of the Great Hall. 

 

Amethyst quickly left the hall so she could rest from shape shifting her size. She couldn’t imagine holding her form for an entire five-act play. 

 


	9. Without Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl remembers how she escaped the first time from the cells with Rose. Amethyst swears a lot as she goes along with Pearl's plan. White Diamond is quite displeased with Pearl's performance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I already had half of this written, so I decided to add another chapter earlier than I usually do. 
> 
> Also it begins with a flashback, which is something I don't normally do.

_Pearl was given simple directions; go to the army base and deliver a message to Yellow Diamond._

 

_When Pearl got there, Yellow Diamond would make Pearl sing. Yellow Diamond had this sadistic way of making the pearls perform for her and only her. It could go on for hours._

 

_Pearl loved to sing...that was when she felt like it._

 

_Yellow Diamond never made her feel like singing._

 

_She passed through the square and looming in the distance was the tall stalagmite tower; The Cells._

 

_Rose was there. In the dark._

 

_Pearl wanted to feel Rose’s light again. She wanted to be in Rose’s embrace. She wanted Rose’s lips. Pearl wanted to bury her face in Rose’s neck and feel the pink locks of Rose’s hair tickle her arm._

 

_Pearl wanted to see a sunset with Rose._

 

_Pearl wasn’t supposed to want anything except for to please White Diamond._

 

_She found herself diverting from her path and in the lobby of The Cells giving a ruby guard the Diamond symbol._

 

_“I am to deliver the arranged to White Diamond for, er, punishment,” Pearl said._

 

_“I see,” the one-eye ruby said. “Where is your protection?”_

 

_“White Diamond said I would be provided protection,” Pearl said with a false confidence._

 

_“Oh, of course,” the Ruby stammered, “You are White Diamond’s Pearl after all.”_

 

_“Exactly,” Pearl said, clearing her throat. “How do you think White Diamond would feel about her Pearl being in danger?”_

 

_“Not good?” the ruby asked._

 

_“The correct word is badly” Pearl said._

 

_As the rubies escorted Pearl down the hallway, one of them asked, “Does she really let you walk around alone?”  
_

 

_“White Diamond believes I have earned the right to walk alone as I am such a dedicated pearl” Pearl said._

 

_Pearl knew they made fun of her behind her back. They snickered and wondered, what gives a pearl the right to do this?_

 

_White Diamond was different when it came to her pearl. The special privileges, like walking alone, were strange at first._

 

_“It’s a model to follow, Pearl," White Diamond had said. "Everyone wants to be like me. Thus every pearl wants to be like you. The more privileges they see you have, the more they will strive to please their gems.” This, according to White Diamond, kept the order in check._

 

 _Pearl found herself in front of Rose’s cell. She started to stress. Behind her the rubies were watching. She thought this might not be a good idea._ _This was for Rose, though. She could do this for Rose._

 

_Pearl took out a key from her gem and inserted it into the cell's keyhole. She opened the door and peered into a room completely immersed in darkness._

 

_“Pearl?!” Rose asked, standing to her feet._

 

_Pearl gave the Diamond Authority symbol to Rose and said Rose’s presence is requested at the Great Hall for White Diamond._

 

_And then Pearl found herself punching a ruby in the face, grabbing Rose’s hand and dragging her down The Cells’ hallway._

 

_“Did you really just punch a gem?!” Rose asked._

 

_“I-I think so,” Pearl stammered._

 

_“Pearl,” Rose asked, “Where are we going?”_

 

_“I’m taking you home!” Pearl said. “There’s a ship in the docking bay on the fiftieth floor!”_

 

_Pearl and Rose ran up a stairwell._

 

_A gaggle of rubies and a jasper cornered them from the upper and lower stairwell._

 

_“Can you a summon a weapon?” Rose asked._

 

_“I don’t think I can do that,” Pearl said._

 

_“Of course you can,” Rose said. She saw a couple of rubies staring at them, ready to attack. She created a bubble around herself and Pearl. The rubies bounced off, falling down the stairwell gap. Pearl looked on in awe. "We can talk about that later," Rose said._

 

_Rose’s bubble retreated. She saw the jasper’s helmet emerge from her gem. Rose took out her shield, ready for combat._

 

_Rose, charged at the jasper, using a spin dash; poofing her._

 

_Rose looked up the stairwell. “Fifty flights, you said?” she asked Pearl._

 

_“Unfortunately,” Pearl said._

 

_“Come here,” Rose said. She grabbed Pearl’s delicate body by the waist and jumped up the stairwell gap; floating upward. “It’s too bad we’re running for our lives,” Rose said. “this is kind of nice, isn’t it.”_

 

_Pearl nodded, forcing a smile as she tried to disregard the thought of White Diamond punishing her for releasing a gem convicted of treason._

 

_When they reached the docking bay. Pearl said, “Good luck.”_

 

_“What do you mean?”_

 

_“Good luck with the whole protecting Earth thing,” Pearl said._

 

_“Wait, you’re not coming with me?!” Rose asked, confused._

 

_“You-you want me to come with you?” Pearl asked. “Really?”_

 

_“Of course! I thought that was the plan the whole time! It’s your decision if you want to come with me.”_

 

_“If I want to?”_

 

_“Yes, Pearl,” Rose said, her eyes looked frantic. They were running out of time before other guards would catch them._

 

_“I don’t know if I can,” Pearl said with tears in her eyes._

 

_“Wont they shatter you for this?” Rose asked._

 

_“White Diamond likes me too much to shatter me,” Pearl said. “I belong to her. I just can't leave. She would most likely be lost without me to help her. Who's going to check her grammer, clean her wing of the palace, and dance for her?”_

 

_“It doesn't matter, Pearl. No one should be doing that for her. Think about it. Do you want to come with me?” Rose said, “I don’t care if you can’t. I just want to know if you want to.”_

 

_Pearl tipped her head to the side. No one had asked her that before. Did she want to? She never considered herself in this capacity. Sure, she would sneak away to dance with Rose, but leaving White Diamond to go to another planet was a completely different scenario. This was not just life changing. It was world changing._

 

_“I do,” Pearl nodded as she held back tears. “I do. I want to go to Earth with you.”_

 

_“Let’s go then!” Rose said, frustrated, but excited as she moved her hands wildly in the air._

 

_They boarded one of the ships and sat in the cockpit. Rose handed Pearl a spacesuit with a pink diamond on it. Pearl put on the spacesuit and then immersed her hands into the navigation computer._

 

_“Do you know how to drive one of these things?” Rose asked._

 

_“It’s just rocket science,” Pearl said with a smirk._

 

_The ship took off from the docking bay. When they reached the sky, Pearl checked the radar. Hundreds of ships shaped like small eyes began to chase after them._

 

_Pearl reached the atmosphere. The ship stood idle, floating. “Just a second. We’re leaving the atmosphere,” Pearl said._

 

_The ship shot out of the atmosphere and into space._

 

_“Pearl?!” They’re still coming!” Rose said as she pointed to the ships on the radar._

 

_“Hold on,” Pearl said. She increased the speed of the ship. Rose felt the gravity pull her back into her seat. “We’ll lose them in the astroid belt!” Pearl said._

 

_Pearl weaved through the astroids. The eyeball shaped ships crashed into each other as they attempted the bizarre turns Pearl used to whip around the large, floating space rocks._

 

_When it looked like they had lost the ships, Pearl put the ship on auto-pilot and leaned back into her seat. She looked over at Rose, who was in shock._

 

_“That was insane,” Rose said._

 

_“I know,” Pearl said, smiling._

 

_“How did you learn to pilot a ship like that?”_

 

_“White Diamond gets bored on interplanetary travels,” Pearl said. “She likes to weave through astroid belts to pass time by.”_

 

_“Okay,” Rose nodded, out of breath “makes sense.”_

 

* * *

 

Amethyst sat in the dumpster, relieved to return to her normal form. Steven sat next to the marble pod, eating one of the granola bars Connie packed. 

 

“I hope Sheena has food,” Steven said. He sat on top of some discarded machinery and old gem tech. 

 

“I’m sure she’s okay,” Amethyst said, trying to be optimistic. She shut the cover to the dumpster and tied her whip to the handle, so no gems could open it from the outside.  

 

“We have twenty hours until she dies of dehydration,” Peridot said. 

 

“So...how was Pearl?” Steven said, trying to change the subject. 

 

“Um...” Amethyst said. “She’s...umm...you know. She’s--” 

 

“I imagine she is imprisoned and being forced to serve the most terrifying gem in the entire universe,” Peridot said, “she must be not doing very well.” 

 

“That’s about right,” Amethyst said with a sigh. “She laughed at one of my insults. Laughed, Steven.” 

 

“She laughed?” Steven said, crinkling his forehead. “Usually she says, ‘Amethyst!,’ and then insults you back.” 

 

“I know,” Amethyst said. She closed her eyes and leaned back. “I’m worried about her.” 

 

“Then we made the right decision to come and rescue her,” Steven said, his voice cracking on the word, ‘her.’ 

 

“Yeah,” Amethyst smiled back at him. “Alright. Well, here’s the plan. Pearl wanted me to come back tomorrow when she, like, dances or something for everyone, which is totally weird, but--” 

 

“It’s not that weird,” Peridot said. 

 

“And why not?” Amethyst said. 

 

“Pearls are the only gems allowed to dance,” Peridot said, shrugging. 

 

“Why?” Steven asked, confused. 

 

“Yeah, why can’t everyone dance?” Amethyst asked. “Like, that’s no fun at all.” 

 

“Because that’s what they’re made for,” Peridot said, “well at least the good ones are. You can, of course, obtain a sub-par one with no dancing skills. A good pearl is supposed to hold your stuff, look pretty, keep your living quarters clean, and entertain you.” 

 

“Why don’t you guys just get bags, find a FWB, hire a maid, and create cable television?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“Because we have pearls,” Peridot said, like this was the most obvious thing in the world. 

 

“So,” Steven said, “Homeworld doesn’t have TV shows like _Crying Breakfast Friends_ or movies with helicopter dogs?” 

 

“No,” Peridot said, “they have pearls, okay?” 

 

“If there are, like, a ton of pearls, then why is it such a big deal that our Pearl is dancing tomorrow?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“Because she’s White Diamond’s pearl,” Peridot said. “Not every gem gets a pearl. So not every gem has seen one, well, dance--” 

 

“Hold the phone, Perri,”Amethyst said, “are you telling me there are, like, thousands of gems here, who have never seen any form of entertainment in their life.” 

 

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Peridot said. 

 

Steven and Amethyst gave each other disturbed looks. 

 

“What do they do when they have free time?” Steven asked. 

 

“What free time?” Peridot asked. 

 

“What free time?!” Amethyst said. “So you’re saying that if I were a-well, pearl-less amethyst soldier on Homeworld, there would be a chance that I would have never seen a dance or have listened to music, like at all? I’d just be guarding some door somewhere, like ALL the time?”

 

“Exactly!” Peridot said, “Now you’re catching on. Anyway, so once in, like, an aeon, White Diamond will reward Homeworld with a public performance of her pearl.” 

 

“This is some fu--” Amethyst looked over at Steven, “fu-unny-weird, freaked up? Messed up. Yup. Messed up stuff.” 

 

Peridot leaned back against the wall of the dumpster, “It’s supposed to be magnificent; the pearl’s performance. That’s why everyone looks forward to it.” 

 

“You see Pearl dance all the time at home,” Steven asked. 

 

“I do, don’t I?” Peridot said, sitting up.

 

“You could even probably dance with her on Earth, Perri,” Amethyst said. 

 

“I probably could,” Peridot squinted, confused like she was solving a complex equation. “What was I thinking? This really is messed up! Any gem should be able to have fun in any way they desire! Oh my stars! What are they doing to gems here?! Earth should not be the only place where a gem can enjoy _Camp Pining Hearts_ and dance their heart out in the middle of a corn field!” 

 

“Now she gets it,” Amethyst said, rolling her eyes. 

* * *

 

In White Diamond's quarters, Pearl sat on a lounge chair. She tried not to laugh at White Diamond frantically pacing back and forth. 

 

“Pearl, are you going to do a good job tomorrow?” White Diamond asked, “I can’t have you start an outburst like that tomorrow. Everything needs to be perfect.” 

 

“I promise you it will be a show for the ages,” Pearl said, sarcastically waving her arm in the air. 

 

“Comments and gestures like that are what worries me about what you might do tomorrow,” White Diamond said. 

 

Pearl motioned for White Diamond to sit next to her on the lounge chair, patting the cushion. White Diamond sat down and buried her face into her hands. 

 

“At least they love you the most,” Pearl said, putting her hand on White Diamond’s back. “The common gems consider you, out of all the Diamonds, to be their favorite.” 

 

“Is it because they love me or because they fear me?” 

 

“Is there a difference between love and fear?” Pearl asked. Pearl knew there should be a well defined difference, but sometimes she had trouble determining it. She had loved Rose, but she was always afraid of losing Rose; that Rose would realize Pearl wasn’t worth it. 

 

“I suppose there isn’t,” White Diamond said, smiling at Pearl. “I’m so glad you’re back.” 

 

“I know,” Pearl said, weakly returning the smile. 

 

“Are you finally happy to be back?” White Diamond asked, raising her eyebrows with hope. 

 

Pearl searched for a way to answer the question without angering White Diamond. “I-” Pearl began to say. 

 

The doors to White Diamond’s quarters opened. Yellow Pearl walked into the room accompanied by some Ruby soldiers. She bowed to White Diamond and said, “White Diamond, I have a message from My Diamond regarding the Cluster. She would like to call an emergency meeting.” 

 

“I see,” White Diamond nodded. 

 

Pearl saw Yellow Pearl giving her a dirty look, probably judging Pearl for sitting on furniture intended for Diamonds. Pearl got up and began to follow White Diamond out of the room. 

 

“Unfortunately, your Loveliness, Yellow Diamond has requested for your pearl to stay behind. I can offer my assistance to you in the interim,” Yellow Pearl said. 

 

“You’re going to offer me assistance?” White Diamond said as if this was the worst idea in the entire universe. “I'd be better off with a ruby. I shall manage without My Pearl for the time being.” White Diamond took a white cane as tall as her hip out of her gem. She tapped the cane on the floor. 

 

Suddenly Pearl felt the chains on her feet tighten. She looked down and saw that she was now shackled to the bedrock wall with a chain made of light. 

 

“I told you,” White Diamond said, “it’s going to take at least a thousand years for me to trust you again.” White Diamond strolled out of the room with an offended Yellow Pearl and the ruby guards. 

 

Pearl smiled to herself. Finally she was alone. For a moment, she allowed herself to collapse onto the lounge chair and lie down. She curled up into a ball and closed her eyes. 

 

_“You don’t have to keep that form if you dislike it,” Rose said._

 

_They sat on the floor of the spaceship, staring at each other since the eighty year journey back to Earth was, although not a substantial amount of time, quite a long ride._

 

_“You don’t like my form?” Pearl asked._

 

_“It doesn’t matter if I like it. Do you like it?” Rose said._

 

_“Not particularly,” Pearl said with a giggle._

 

_“Okay. Then you can change it,” Rose said, smiling. “You can have it be anything you want.”_

 

_“I can make it a practical form,” Pearl nodded._

 

_“If that’s what you want,” Rose said. She slowly reached out to Pearl’s cheek and cradled it with her palm. “You’re iridescent, right?”_

 

_“Yes,” Pearl said._

 

_“Why don’t you incorporate any other colors into your form?” Rose said, gently rubbing her thumb in a circle against Pearl’s soft cheek._

 

_“Because I belong to White Diamond. She decided my form.”_

 

_“You just ran away from White Diamond. I don’t think you belong to her anymore.”_

 

_“I don’t, do I?” Pearl said, biting her lip. “I suppose I belong to nobody then.”_

 

_“I know! Isn’t it exciting?!” Rose asked with wide, starry eyes._

 

_“It is,” Pearl nodded, slightly embarrassed._

 

_“You don't need to be embarrassed,” Rose said._

 

_Pearl said with a grin. “I am freaking ecstatic!”_

 

_Rose's hand moved to the back of Pearl’s head, feeling Pearl’s soft, tightly curled hair, between her fingers as she loosened them into waves. She moved closer to Pearl’s face, staring at Pearl’s lips._

 

_Pearl blushed blue._

 

_“Do you trust me, Pearl?” Rose asked._

 

_Pearl nodded, closing her eyes, feeling Rose’s breath on her skin._

 

_“I don’t want to hurt you, but this is what I have to do so you can chose your own form. I want you to take this time to really figure out who you want to be,” Rose said._

 

_“You’re going to poof me?” Pearl asked. Her eyes were still closed. She felt Rose’s lips meet hers in a soft, slow, satisfying kiss that Pearl had been waiting for since she had first danced with Rose._

 

_Rose pulled way from the kiss and whispered in Pearl’s ear, “I can’t wait to see you when you come back.”_

 

_A sharp object pierced her body. Then, for the first time, Pearl felt all her light retreat into her gem._

 

Pearl sat up on the lounge chair. She walked over to the balcony to check the position of the Red Giant star Homeworld revolved around. She had approximately two Earth hours until she was to perform. 

 

She decided this was now or never. 

 

For the most part, Pearl took her time when she retreated into her gem to create a new form. She put a substantial amount of thought into it. Most of the time when she got poofed, it was not planned. So when she was in her gem, she would have to think about what her new form will be. 

 

Amethyst would simply fix the straps on the shirt of her previous form or choose an alternate color. She could come back within a half-hour. 

 

Pearl did not think the same way as Amethyst. 

 

However, when you’ve been trapped in a frivolous form that represents everything you despise and fear; then you’ve already been thinking about your new form ahead of time. 

 

Pearl estimated it would take her an hour to come back. 

 

She could shape-shift her old form for approximately three hours and then she could be who she wanted be. 

 

Pearl projected a Holo-Pearl. The Holo-Pearl took out a spear and stabbed Pearl in the stomach. “You have failed,” the Holo-Pearl said as Pearl poofed and her gem fell onto the lounge chair. 

 

* * *

 

Amethyst shape shifted to a larger form. She walked across the Capital City's square and to the Diamond Authority Palace. 

 

Crowds of gems were gathered, waiting in lines to get into the show. 

 

“What’s the deal?’ Amethyst said aloud. 

 

“White Diamond’s pearl is to perform tonight,” a ruby said, swooning like a fan girl. 

 

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Amethyst said. 

 

“You must have a pearl of your own,” the ruby said. “I’ve never seen a dance before. It’s just so exciting.” 

 

“Oh, it’s going to be exciting,” Amethyst said with a mischievous smile. After waiting in line, Amethyst finally made her way into The Great Hall. 

 

White Diamond sat on her throne, bored, examining her finger nails. A pale white Pearl, still in the ridiculous form White Diamond chose for her, stood next to the throne with her head down. 

 

Amethyst squeezed her way into the front of the crowd. 

 

White Diamond casually waved her hand and dimmed the lights in the entire hall. 

 

Amethyst looked up, confused as to how White Diamond did that. 

 

“I’m glad you all could make it here tonight to see My Pearl dance," White Diamond said. "I promise this will be a once in an aeon opportunity to see a spectacular dance form. I know I have been waiting eight thousand years for this moment, so let’s not waste any more time.” 

 

White Diamond gestured for Pearl to walk into the center of the stage area. 

 

“Tell them what you’ve been dying to say,” White Diamond said. 

 

Still looking down, Pearl said with little emotion, “I followed the coward traitor Rose Quartz to Earth. I see my error now. For Rose Quartz was selfish. She did not...she did not care about gem kind. She disregarded authority. She deserves to be shattered for what she did to Pink Diamond. For I--For I belong to...I belong to White Diamond. It is where I belong. I am happy and content and forever grateful that she did not shatter me for my transgressions.” 

 

Amethyst couldn’t believe what she just heard. It took every photon in her body to not let her lose her shape shifted form. 

 

“Good, Pearl,” White Diamond said. Her lips curled into a beaming, disturbing smile. She reached down and took off the chains from Pearl’s ankles. 

 

Pearl stood, free, in the middle of the stage area alone. She twirled and projected several Holo-Pearls; forming a band that played hologram instruments of a piano, violins, and drums. 

 

The Holo-Pearl began to play a melancholy tune. 

 

Pearl moved with grace, slowly twirling around. 

 

Then the violins began to accompany the piano. Pearl stopped twirling. She began to move in complicated footsteps around the room. Amethyst thought she looked as if someone was with her dancing. It was as if Pearl pretended Rose was with her. 

 

Amethyst remembered when she saw them dance on the beach once and how they moved as one, like no other gem could dance with Pearl like that. 

 

Pearl then moved with slow, exaggerated twirls before lifting her leg up in the air. Amethyst saw the solemn expression on Pearl’s face. 

 

Pearl did not think she would ever dance like this again; not without Rose. 

 

Amethyst knew Pearl would plan to escape after this dance. The dance was Pearl’s love letter to Rose, to show she had not forgotten Rose and that words, like the speech White Diamond forced Pearl to recite, were meaningless. 

 

The song ended. Pearl stood in the middle of the stage, silent. She projected several more Holo-Pearls, who formed a circle around her. Pearl kept her head down and her feet stayed in a pirouette. The Holo-Pearls moved to the outside of the stage area; encircling Pearl in the center. The piano kept playing a soft melody. Then one of the Holo-Pearls in the band started to create a steady beat with the drums.

 

Amethyst saw White Diamond tilt her head in confusion. 

 

Pearl began nod her head to the beat of the drums. The piano then started a jazzier tune; hectic and loud with blocked chords. 

 

Pearl moved her shoulders side to side and moved her hips like she was in a dance club. She spread her feet far apart, then brought them together to do a flashy twirl. Pearl paused for a second and looked toward Amethyst. 

 

Amethyst froze. What the hell was Pearl doing? 

 

Pearl bowed to Amethyst. Then Amethyst knew exactly what Pearl was doing. Pearl never had adapted to Amethyst’s dance style. Amethyst would always have to do some half-assed ballet move.  “Hold your form,” Pearl mouthed to Amethyst silently. 

 

Amethyst smiled and bowed back, still keeping her large stature. 

 

“What is going on?” White Diamond said loudly, her voice boomed over the music. 

 

Pearl rose her hand in the hair to make her Holo-Pearls increase the volume of the music as Amethyst joined her on the stage area. They began to dance in a hectic, but coordinated style moving their shoulders back and forth and bending their knees. 

 

Amethyst looked over at Pearl and noticed her earrings were different. “Your earrings are stars instead of Diamonds.” 

 

“I know,” Pearl said with a smirk. She saw White Diamond ordering for some Quartz soldiers to stop the dance. 

 

“Stop her from dancing with MY Pearl!” White Diamond said tot he soldiers. “SHATTER THAT AMETHYST!” 

 

“Ready?” Pearl asked Amethyst. 

 

Amethyst nodded. At the same time, they dropped their shape shifted forms. Amethyst returned to her normal size. Pearl’s fancy outfit disappeared and turned into a more sensible form of her strawberry-orange-pink hair in a bob and a blue leotard with a pink tutu and yellow leggings. She did, however, keep the earrings, instead opting for a star shape instead of diamonds. 

 

As the Quartz soldiers approached the circle. All the Holo-Pearls’ eyes turned red. The music stopped. “Training Level EXPERT,” all the Holo-Pearls said in unison as they took out spears from their holo-gems. 

 

Amethyst then offered Pearl her hand. Pearl accepted and spun into Amethyst’s embrace; fusing in front of the entire court. The crowd gasped at the shock of the fusion between a pearl and a quartz. 

 

Opal immediately took out her bow and arrow. She shot and poofed the jasper soldiers who made it past the expert level Holo-Pearls. A ruby soldier approached her from the back. Opal used her whip to trap the ruby in a bind before she flung the soldier against a pillar. 

 

Then White Diamond made eye contact with Opal and slowly walked down the steps of her throne not removing the intense stare. “I believe you’ve just made a grave mistake, Pearl. Don’t you think so?” White Diamond said with venom in her voice. 

 

Opal took out a bow and arrow. She aimed it at White Diamond and shook her head. “No. Pearl hasn’t made a mistake.” 

 

“Fair enough,” White Diamond said. She took out a white, sparkling cane from her gem. 

 

“Her weapon’s a cane?” Opal said. “Don’t let it fool you,” Opal said to herself, then she let go of the arrow.  

 

The arrow shot directly toward White Diamond, who disappeared into thin air before the arrow could hit her. 

 

Opal heard the hollow sound of the arrow falling onto the bedrock floor. “She can teleport?” 

 

Opal sensed White Diamond was behind her. White Diamond rose the cane in the air and then started to move it in a slashing motion to Opal’s shoulder. 

 

Opal swiftly took Pearl’s spear out of her gem and blocked the hit from cane. Opal faced White Diamond and took another spear out of her gem. She spun both of the spears around in her hands. Opal aimed to strike White Diamond’s knees, but White Diamond gracefully jumped up in the air, avoiding the spear attack. 

 

"It's almost like dancing," White Diamond said, "isn't it?" White Diamond then began to hack at Opal with the cane. Opal blocked most of the attacks as she backed away, but felt one of her arms get slashed. White Diamond aimed for Opal’s head; slicing horizontally. Opal ducked. Then White Diamond jumped in the air and hit Opal down to the floor in one motion. 

 

“Now, have you made a mistake, Pearl?” White Diamond said. “I think you have and you are very, very sorry for it.” 

 

Opal began to flash into light. Her form was breaking apart. “We can do this, P!” Opal said. Opal breathed in deep and steadied her form. “I think you’re the one who made a mistake,” Opal said to White Diamond. She took two of Amethyst’s whips out of her gem and wrapped them around White Diamond’s cane. She moved two of her arms into the air like a drummer at a concert. A purple shock of light travelled through the two whips and then hit White Diamond to the ground. 

 

Opal began to run toward the exit, weaving through the crowds of gem soldiers who were attempting to control Pearl’s holograms. 

 

Opal looked behind her shoulder and saw White Diamond still lying on the ground.

 

As Opal reached the exit to the Great Hall, she began to fiddle with the door touchpad. 

 

“What the fuck, Pearl!” Opal said. “You can’t open a door?” 

 

“You can’t either, Amethyst!” Opal said. 

 

“But I haven’t been here for the past two days!” Opal said. 

 

Then Opal split apart. 

 

Amethyst and Pearl were sitting on the ground. Pearl hopped up and went up to the door touchpad. She swiped left. “ACCESS DENIED,” the robot voice said. 

 

Amethyst looked behind them and saw that White Diamond had stood up. She was standing patiently in the middle of the room, leaning against the cane. The lights of the Great Hall began to flicker. 

 

“Uh...Pearl?” Amethyst said, her voice shaking. 

 

Pearl looked back at White Diamond. “Oh no!” she said.  

 

“Oh no?” Amethysts eyes widened. “Why did you just say ‘oh no.’?” 

 

Pearl began to frantically swiped left on the touchscreen, “ACCESS DENIED.” 

 

Then the electricity began to flicker. The door touchpad turning on and off. 

 

“Access Denied,” the door said. “YOU HAVE ONE MORE ATTEMPT.” 

 

Pearl frantically looked around the room for White Diamond. She saw the intimidating, tall gem walking toward them. White Diamond aimed her cane at the Holo-Pearls. A white flash emitted from the cane like a wave of light. The light wave hit the Holo-Pearls and dissipated them. It moved through the other quartz and ruby soldiers, poofing them. Their gems fell to the floor, making a high pitch echo.  

 

“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit,” Amethyst began to mutter, “How the hell did she do that, Pearl?!” 

 

“She can control light!” Pearl said with a wail as she tried to figure out how the door pad worked.  

 

“You could’t have mentioned this earlier?!” Amethyst said. 

 

“I dunno!” Pearl said, “I thought it was pretty obvious.” 

 

“How is that obvious?! She just wiped out half the gems in here at once!” Amethyst turned around and saw White Diamond aiming her cane at Pearl and Amethyst. 

 

“You wont escape again, Pearl,” White Diamond said, “Not this time. I refuse to let it happen.” 

 

Amethyst pushed Pearl out of the way. She swiped left on the touchpad. “ACCESS GRANTED.” The door began to slide open. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Amethyst said.

 

Suddenly the door stopped with only a sliver open. All the lights shut off. Darkness surrounded them. Amethyst could barely see. 

 

Then she saw a small flash of a wave of light coming toward them. Amethyst grabbed Pearl’s hand, pulled her through the small crack in the door and out of the Great Hall. 

 

Outside, they ran down the palace steps. Amethyst spotted a bored Peridot leaning against the marble pod. “The eagle has spotted her pray and the eagle can fucking teleport!” Amethyst yelled to Peridot. 

 

“What?” Peridot asked. 

 

“We need to put this plan into action, ASAP!” Amethyst yelled. 

 

“Where is Steven?” Pearl asked as she ran toward Peridot.

 

Peridot opened the marble pod’s cover and said, “Let’s go, Steven!” 

 

Steven climbed out of the pod. “Pearl!” he said, his voice cracking into a high pitch. He ran into Pearl’s arms, giving her an embrace. “You’re okay!” 

 

“Steven, you shouldn’t have come here,” Pearl said, hugging Steven tight. 

 

“I had to rescue you. Your form is different. Did you get poofed?” Steven asked. 

 

“It’s a long story,” Pearl said.

 

Then an alarm began to go off in the city streets. A siren rang throughout the city. 

 

“Warning. Warning,” a low voice said over a loudspeaker. “Code red. Escaped pearl. Escaped pearl. Code red. Code red. Alert. Alert. Please close down access to all buildings. The City is on lockdown. Code red. Escaped pearl.” 

 

Pearl and Steven looked up to the sky. Thousands of the marble pods were flying in the air. 

 

Steven froze in the street. he hadn’t seen what Homeworld had looked like until this moment. “Wow,” he said. 

 

Pearl pushed Steven forward. “Go!” Pearl said, “Go toward The Cells!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***So I really wanted to have Mystery Girl in this chapter, but it ended up being a lot longer than I thought*****
> 
> Also if anyone cares, White Diamond's weapon/fighting style is based off of Canne de Combat. It's a French fighting style that involves fencing and hacking at each other with walking canes. It's actually pretty badass and ridiculously graceful.


	10. My Pearl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will fix grammar errors within the next couple days. Thanks for comments and kudos! I hope this chapter doesn't alienate anyone... this is just how I imagine it happened.

Steven followed the others to the Cells. He looked up at the large stalagmite structure. At the entrance there were intimidating sculptures of the Diamonds with their Pearls. Yellow Diamond and Yellow Pearl stood with their hands on their hips, smugly looking out to the distance. Blue Diamond appeared to be in deep thought while her pearl stared at the ground. Pink Diamond looked giddy, trying not to laugh as she put her index finger to her mouth, signaling her giggling pearl to be quiet. White Diamond had her hand on Pearl’s shoulder, while Pearl had her hand over White Diamond’s, trying not to cringe at the feel of White Diamond’s touch. 

 

“Is that you, Pearl?” Steven asked. 

 

Pearl took a quick moment to observe the statues. The statue of her looked quite disturbed. Pearl assumed they would remove her and replace her with the new pearl White Diamond got when Pearl left for the Crystal Gems. She nodded to Steven. “We need to hurry,” she said gently as she guided Steven up the steps of The Cells. 

 

_Rose stood in the middle of the strawberry fields. Pearl and Garnet waited besides her. They watched a large spaceship shaped like arm land. White Diamond, Pink Diamond, Pink Pearl, and some Amethyst guards were lowered from the ship. They walked across the field to the Crystal Gems._

 

_With a five foot distance between them, Rose said, “We have read your terms.”_

 

_“And?” White Diamond said, crossing her arms._

 

_“We do not agree to them,” Rose said._

 

_Pink Diamond rolled her eyes. Pink Pearl giggled at the action._

 

_“Care to negotiate, Crystal Gems?” White Diamond said. “What terms do you not agree with?”_

 

_“Where do we begin?” Pearl said snidely._

 

_“You stop building any future kindergartens on Earth. Any ones presently active may stay. New ones shall be banned,” Rose said._

 

_“I think we can agree to that,” White Diamond said. “What else?” She tapped her foot in frustration._

 

_“Garnet may stay fused.”_

 

_“Hah,” Pink Diamond said. “You’re kidding. A perma-fusion is not going to be allowed on My Planet.”_

 

_White Diamond tilted her head in thought, “Deal.”_

 

_“What?” Pink Diamond said._

 

_“You will have other planets you can ban perma-fusions from,” White Diamond said._

 

_“And lastly,” Rose said. “Pearl is not going back to Homeworld if she belongs to you there. She belongs to nobody.”_

 

_Pink Diamond looked at White Diamond, who stared straight ahead. Pink Diamond seemed panicked. “Take the negotiation,” she whispered to her sister. “You can get another one.”_

 

_“Let’s think about this rationally,” White Diamond said, “Rose, I can’t give in to all your requests. What kind of leader would I look like. It’s already embarrassing enough that I’ve lost my pearl to rebel forces attempting to overthrow my sister. If I grant her freedom, what will the other pearls think?”_

 

_“We’re not bending on this negotiation,” Rose said._

 

_“She’s just some defective pearl,” Pink Diamond said. “She’s not worth it if she’s this broken.”_

 

_“Silence,” White Diamond said. She walked up, close to Rose, and bent down to look her in the eye. “Does it look like I have a replacement for my pearl yet?”_

 

_Rose, with worry in her eyes, looked back at Pearl, who seemed to be pleading to Rose with her eyes. Rose then stared back at White Diamond and shook her head. “No.”_

 

_“That’s because I do not plan on getting another one,” White Diamond said, “For the last thousand years, I have been through thousands of pearls. None of them are this one.” She pointed to Pearl. “None of them stacked up to this one. You can save an entire planet, Rose Quartz. All you have to do is give me My Pearl back.”_

 

_Pearl stared down at the ground. As she was about to take a step forward to give herself up. Rose put her arm out to the side, signaling for Pearl to stay in place._

 

_“Not happening,” Rose said. “We will fight you for thousands of years if it means to keep our promises that this will be a planet for all gems to be safe and free.”_

 

_“And to think I pegged you as merely an ‘environmentalist,’” White Diamond said. “Fair enough.”_

 

_White Diamond turned around and headed toward the ship._

 

_Pink Diamond and Pink Pearl gave each other concerned looks. Pink Diamond made eye contact with Rose and shrugged._

 

Steven, Pearl, Peridot, and Amethyst stormed into The Cell’s lobby. 

 

Three rubies guarding the lobby fused, forming one large ruby. The large ruby approached the Crystal Gems. Amethyst took out two whips from her gem and wrapped them around the large ruby’s wrists. Pearl took out a spear and stabbed the ruby until she split apart into three. 

 

Amethyst bound one in the confines of her whip, tightening the rope until the ruby poofed. 

 

Steven took out his shield and threw it like a frisbee at one of the rubies still on the ground, poofing her. 

 

Pearl stabbed the last one with her spear and then ran over to the computer. She searched for the exact cell number Sheena was being held in. “Floor forty-eight, Section K, Cell 98,” Pearl said. 

 

“Peridot,” Pearl said. “Go get a ship now.” 

 

“What about my _Ocean’s Eleven_ plan?” Peridot asked. “We can’t cut the power this early!” 

 

Pearl took a set of archaic keys out of her gem. “We don’t need electronic doors in here,” she said. 

 

“Perrogi!” Amethyst said, “Where the hell did you get those?” 

 

“White Diamond gave them to me...nine thousand years ago,” Pearl smiled to herself, “she must have forgotten we used to use keys back then and that I still had a set.” 

 

“Let’s do this!” Steven said. 

 

“When we get up to Sheena’s cell, we’ll give you a sign we’re good to go!” Pearl said. 

 

“What’s the sign?” Peridot asked. 

 

“You’ll know it when you see it,” Pearl said. 

 

Peridot nodded and ran out of the lobby to try and secure an escape ship. 

 

Pearl looked up the stairs as Amethyst began to ascend the staircase. “We can’t go there yet” 

 

“What about your girlfriend?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“We need to cut the power first,” Pearl said. She went down the stairs into the basement. 

 

They made their way down a dilapidated hallway to a double-door with the old Diamond Authority Symbol on it. Steven looked up at the tall stone door and said, “What’s behind the door?” 

 

“I’m afraid to imagine,” Pearl said. She used a key to open the door and pushed it forward. Upon opening it, Pearl’s face dropped at the sight of what appeared to be a server room shaped like a maze, only instead of hard drive boxes, there were hundreds of thousands of gems, mostly pearls, set up in rows next to each other on the walls. 

 

“Oh my,” Pearl said, horrified as she put her hand over her mouth. “I can’t believe it.” She walked down the server room hall. “I don’t even know where to begin.” 

 

“They were using all these gems for power. This is just so messed up,” Amethyst said. 

 

“There are so many of them. We might have to shut the power off and come back for them later,” Steven said. 

 

Pearl didn’t want to tell Steven that there was no later. They needed to escape as soon as possible and get back to Earth. With what the Diamonds were planning for the Cluster, there was no come back later. With tears in her eyes, Pearl said, “Good idea, Steven.” 

 

Pearl made her way through the middle of the server maze. Amethyst found the power lever. “It’s this thing-y, right?’ she asked Pearl. 

 

Pearl nodded. As Amethyst pulled the lever, the entire room became dark; devoid of light. Pearl allowed light to emit from her gem so they could see where they were going. 

 

“Let’s get Sheena,” Pearl said. They ran up the stairs, fighting the ruby and quartz guards they came upon. 

 

When they reached the door to cell 98, Pearl stood there, shuffling her weight between her feet. 

 

“Watcha waiting for?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“This is, well, this is all my fault,” Pearl said. “What is she going to think? She’s probably going to hate me.” 

 

“Pearl, you came all this way to save her,” Steven said. “She’s not going to hate you for that.” 

 

Pearl smiled at Steven and nodded. 

 

“P,” Amethyst said, “I didn’t fight the most terrifying gem in the universe only for you to chicken out right now.” 

 

Pearl laughed and inserted the key into the cell door.  

 

She was expecting darkness and inhabitable conditions. She thought Sheena would be sitting barefoot on the floor of a cold cell, like how she found Rose. 

 

Sheena was sitting on a neatly made bed reading a book. A hologram device was in the room. There was an open window. Light poured into the room from the window. She looked up as Pearl opened the door. “Pearl!” she said. She let the book drop to the floor as she jumped up and ran over to Pearl. 

 

“What are you doing here?” Sheena asked as she embraced Pearl, squeezing her tightly.

 

"It's Saturday," Pearl said, hugging her back. "Don't we have a date?" 

 

“I’m so happy you’re okay. They wouldn’t tell me what happened to you.” She observed Pearl, “New look?”  

 

“Um, yeah,” Pearl said biting her lip, embarrassed. 

 

“It’s hot,” Sheena said, resting her forehead against Pearl’s.

 

Pearl cupped Sheena’s cheek and pushed the pink hair away from Sheena’s face. She observed Sheena’s cute freckles, thinking about how fascinating she found them. “You’re okay,” Pearl said. “I thought--I thought they would--I wasn’t sure they would take care of you.” 

 

Sheena giggled. “I’ve only eaten oatmeal for three days, but ‘m doing okay.” 

 

“Thank the stars,” Pearl said. She felt the soft strands of Sheena’s hair between her fingers and stood up on her toes for a kiss.  As Pearl found herself get caught up with the kiss, she heard the sound of a crowd chanting in the background. 

 

Steven walked over to the open window to find out where the sound was from. 

 

Amethyst casually leaned against the doorway smirking, “Yo, P. It’s nice you’re finally getting some and all, but don’t you think this would be a good time to give Peridot the signal before we all get caught by White Diamond and get shattered?” 

 

Pearl pulled away from Sheena and blushed blue. She cleared her throat, “You’re right, Amethyst.” 

 

“What did you just say?” Amethyst asked. “Can you say that again? I’m going to record it this time, so I can play it back to you later.” 

 

Pearl ignored Amethyst’s comment. 

 

“Hey guys!” Steven said, his voice cracking, “You might wanna come over here.” 

 

“Dude, get control of that voice thing,” Amethyst said. 

 

“ _Amethyst_ ,” Pearl said. “Be nice. Be can’t help it. His voice must be changing. His voice box is growing and his voice is lowering.” 

 

“How do you know that?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“I read it in a--you know a book,” Pearl said as she walked over to the window.

 

“Was it an anatomy book, P?” Amethyst asked slyly, “Watcha doing with one of those?” 

 

Once again, Pearl ignored Amethyst’s comment and looked out the window. The square was filled with thousands of gems protesting in the street chanting the dissolution of the Diamond Authority. 

 

“Wow,” Amethyst said. 

 

Pearl smiled. “The resistance,” she said. Pearl reached into her gem and took out an old battle flag with Rose’s sigil on it. She hung it out the window. 

 

The crowd began to cheer wildly. “Renegade Pearl. Renegade Pearl!” 

 

Pearl then took out another flag from her gem. It was one of the star symbol on Steven’s shirt. 

 

“The star?” Steven asked. 

 

“It’s what Rose would have wanted,” Pearl said, nodding. She draped the Star Flag out the window over Rose’s old sigil. 

 

“Can someone kind of explain what is going on?” Sheena said. 

 

Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven turned around and looked at Sheena. 

 

“Um...” Pearl couldn't find the words. She looked at her feet and decided she disliked the color she picked for her shoes. Blue would have been a better choice. 

 

“Pearl’s not just a criminal on Earth for speeding,” Amethyst said, grinning, “She’s the most wanted gem in this galaxy!” 

 

“You’re a wanted criminal here?” Sheena asked. “Can-can I ask why?” 

 

“Grand theft spacecraft,” Pearl said. 

 

“You stole a spaceship?!” Sheena asked. She walked up to Pearl and took her hands in her own, bringing them close to her chest. “Seriously?” 

 

Pearl nodded.

 

“That’s awesome!” 

 

“There’s more,” Pearl said. She sighed, “Treason, Conspiracy, Aiding and Abetting Escape, and...” 

 

“Pearl, it’s okay,” Sheena said, rubbing Pearl’s hand with her thumb. “This place is like really messed up. I understand if you didn’t want to follow all the rules here.” They could still hear the crowd of protesters in the square cheering out the window. “They seem to really like you for it.” 

 

Pearl did not mention the last charge. She still did not know how to explain it to Amethyst and Steven. She couldn’t even completely explain it to Garnet. Garnet knew though. She understood what was at stake back then. 

 

_Pearl sprinted through the strawberry fields, dodging the attacks of jaspers and amethysts. She searched for Rose with high alert. If Rose got poofed, then there would be nobody to use healing tears for the other Gems. Pearl didn’t want her zest for protecting Rose to look as if she were bordering on obsession, but this was necessary._

 

_It was simple logic. She couldn’t heal others and therefore was not as important as Rose._

 

_Pearl, looking away, stupidly ran into a large leg and fell flat on the ground. She peered up and saw White Diamond. Pearl drew her weapon from her gem as her sword was nowhere to be seen._

 

_“I think I underestimated you,” White Diamond said, smirking as if this was the most amusing thing she had ever seen. “You can summon a weapon now.”_

 

_Pearl jumped to her feet. “I’ll...I’ll shatter you,” she stammered._

 

_“My Pearl, you would never shatter me,” White Diamond said. “You care about me too much. It’s the same reason I wont shatter you.” She knelt down._

 

_Pearl stood her ground, but remained in a defensive stance instead of attacking._

 

_“I didn’t come here to fight,” White Diamond said. “I came here to get you before...”_

 

_“Before what?” Pearl yelled._

 

_“I couldn’t explain it. Only that you need to leave Earth. Soon it wont be safe here anymore. Please, let’s just go home and forget about this. I’ll open the doors for the next thousand years if you come back. Please. You know I could not care less about this whole thing.”_

 

_“You’re the reason why we’re here!” Pearl said, “If you only had let Rose protect Earth.”_

 

_“Pearl, we both know I’m not going to go against my sister,” White Diamond began to tear up. “I can’t let you stay here.” She shook her head, “You’re all in terrible danger. Come back to Homeworld with me so I can protect you again.” She offered her hand to Pearl, who ignored the act of forgiveness. “I care for you, Pearl. I care for you more than any other gem,” White Diamond shed a tear. “I miss you.”_

 

_Pearl looked around and saw Pink Diamond cornering Rose against a large rock formation._

 

_She closed her eyes and said, “I will go back with you on one condition.”_

 

_“And that is?”_

 

_“Tell Pink Diamond to give up the planet to Rose and the humans.”_

 

_“And take away her first conquest? Do you know how that will ruin her confidence?”_

 

_“I mean it.”_

 

_White Diamond tilted her head to the side. “I’ll go and draw up a Peace Treaty. After this battle, this Hundreds Years War is over.”_

 

_Before White Diamond could board her ship. Pearl saw Rose getting repeatedly kicked by Pink Diamond. Rose was unable to summon her shield. Pink Diamond then squished her with her foot, attempting to shatter Rose’s gem by the pressure._

 

_“You know what? Forget it,” Pearl said._

 

_“What?” White Diamond asked._

 

_“I don’t want to go home with you. I’m staying here. Forever. With Rose,” Pearl said._

 

_“Do you know how many gems you just put at risk for your own selfish reasons, Pearl?”_

 

_“I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. And I can’t even pick you up.” Pearl glared at White Diamond before she climbed to the top of the rock formation._

 

_“Rose,” Pink Diamond said, “We were such good friends.” She emitted a pink laser out of her gem. It shot out and froze Rose in place mid-air. “You sure you want to go through with this? I’ll make sure they wont shatter you. You can spend the rest of eternity in The Cells.”_

 

_On top of the rock, Pearl sprinted toward Rose and threw her spear at Pink Diamond, hitting her in the eye._

 

_Pink Diamond lost her focus. Rose was released from the laser’s hold and fell to the ground._

 

_“Rose!” Pearl yelled. Pearl drew a completely pink sword from her gem that was twice the size of her own height._

 

_Pink Diamond, covering one eye, saw Pearl on the top of the rock formation. “You! You defective, broken decoration!”_

 

_Pearl tossed the sword in the air to Rose, who hopped up from the ground and caught it. She smiled at Pearl, thanking her for the help._

 

_Pearl threw another spear at the back of Pink Diamond’s leg, striking her in the calf. Pink Diamond lost her footing and tripped forward. Her gem on her stomach landed right on Rose’s sword. Rose’s eyes widened in shock as she failed to move out of the way._

 

_This lead to a a light so bright, that it blinded Pearl’s eyes. Wind blew her hair away from her face, stinging her cheeks. Pearl heard a deafening screech of pain and then a loud boom._

 

_The light faded and shards of pink gems shards began to fall from the sky._

 

_Pearl saw Rose, in utter disbelief, kneeling next to her sword. Pearl crawled over and put her hand on Rose’s shoulder._

 

_“What have I done?” Rose said as tears filled her eyes. “I shattered her. I shattered her,” she mumbled over and over, almost incoherently._

 

_Rose began to pick up the shards in her hands, frantically bawling tears over them. “I’ve got to try and heal her,” she said with a gasp. “I have to make my tears heal her.” Rose cried over the pink shards, but they never reformed._

 

_“Shhh. My Rose, it’s okay,” Pearl said, standing up and taking Rose’s head in an embrace. She gently stroked Rose’s hair as she held back her horror and tears. “We didn’t mean to.”_

 

_“I shattered her,” Rose said, burying her face into Pearl’s chest. “I’ve caused her inescapable suffering. She will always be in pieces. I can’t heal her, Pearl. I-I can’t do it.”_

 

_“We both did--”_

 

_“No, you didn’t, Pearl,” Rose said. “I did this. All of this. It’s all my fault. Why did I get you mixed up in this?”_

 

_Pearl buried her face in Rose’s pink hair, allowing her tears to dampen the soft locks. “It’s going to be okay, My Rose. Someday this will all be over and we will be okay again.”_

 

_At sunset, Rose finally got up. Her tears ceased and she walked toward the Crystal Gem camp. The Crystal Gem soldiers looked at her in silence as she sauntered through the campsite._

 

_The wailing stone went off. All the Crystal Gems gathered around. Rose stood off in the distance. “Rose Quartz, Facet 1-ARQ, Cut 8XK. This is White Diamond.” The stone said, with a cracked, sorrowful voice. “I hope you know we are not taking this event lightly. You are given two choices; return to Homeworld to face trial for what you have done or stay on Earth and face the consequences. End transmission.”_

 

_Rose turned around and dawdled up a large hill. Pearl watched Rose stand on the hill alone, staring at the sunset._

 

_“I can’t believe it. Is it over now?” Bismuth asked Pearl._

 

_“Ask Garnet,” Pearl said absently._

 

_She followed Rose up to the hill, but remained some distance away and knelt to the ground.  Rose stood in silence for what seemed to be ages._

 

_“Pearl...” Rose said. She slowly turned around and looked at Pearl._

 

_“Yes?”_

 

_“I’m going to stay and fight for this planet. You don’t have to do this with me.”_

 

_“But I want to.”_

 

_“I know you do. Please, please understand if we lose, we’ll be killed and if we win, we can never go home.”_

 

_“But why would I ever want to go home when you’re here?”_

 

_Rose laughed. It was short and sweet, like she knew there was no other way Pearl would have answered.  She offered her hand to Pearl. “My Pearl. You’re wonderful.”_

 

_Pearl took Rose’s hand. She pulled Pearl up from the ground._

 

_"You don't need to kneel before me," Rose said._

 

* * *

 

White Diamond sat in her quarters eating oatmeal and staring out into the open window of the balcony. The square was filled with gems protesting and chanting to the Diamond Authority’s demise. 

 

Looming in the distance was The Cells. A large banner of a Star hung outside the window. 

 

The door to her quarters boomed open. Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond entered, followed by their pearls. 

 

“Stop this now!” Yellow Diamond said. 

 

White Diamond rolled her eyes. She set the oatmeal down on the table and rolled over on her lounge chair to look at her sisters.

 

“Oh, hello,” she said. 

 

“Oh hello?’ You have got to be kidding me,” Yellow Diamond said, disgusted. “You need to go out there and control the protesters. Poof them with your abilities! We’ll send their gems to The Cells!” 

 

“I don’t see the point,” White Diamond said. 

 

“You don’t see the point?” Yellow Diamond was flabbergasted. “We will lose control of Homeworld and then possibly the rest of our empire if you allow this to go any further.” 

 

“Pearl’s gone. Forever. For the second time. You don't get a third chance for these types of things. I don’t really see the point,” White Diamond said. “I should just let her be free and happy. That’s what one is supposed to do when they...care for another? Right?” 

 

“What one is supposed to do is control their subjects!” Yellow Diamond said. “I can’t believe this! You are a complete embarrassment. If I only had your powers, I guarantee this would not be happening right now.” 

 

“Well you don’t,” White Diamond said. 

 

“She’s just a pearl,” Yellow Diamond said, exasperated. “We can simply get you a new one. Heck, I’ll even give you mine.”

 

“A ruby would be better than your pearl,” White Diamond said. 

 

Yellow Pearl’s eyes widened in anger. She clenched her fists. As she was about to take a step forward, Blue Pearl put her hand on Yellow Pearl’s shoulder, preventing her from moving. 

 

“I’ve tried other pearls. They’re just not the same. They’re not My Pearl. The one I had before her was not to my liking. The ones after her were just not her. They didn’t have funny, sassy comments about the other gems. They didn’t know cool facts about star systems. None of them could drive a spaceship like she could, or dance like she could, or stare into my eyes with such loving devotion and console me through my darkest moments.” 

 

“SHE IS A PEARL!” Yellow Diamond said, exasperated. She walked over to Yellow Pearl and said, “Look.” She gestured to Yellow Pearl. “This pearl is just like all the others. There is nothing different about her than yours. If she angers me, I can get rid of her right now and get a new one within hours that will look the same, do the exact same job, behave the same, and will be no different than the one standing before me.” 

 

Yellow Pearl looked panicked. She started sublty shaking. 

 

“You two!” Yellow Diamond said to the two pearls, “Dance for her! Cheer her up!” 

 

Blue Pearl and Yellow Pearl began dancing together, attempting to cheer up White Diamond. 

 

“My pearl is infinitely better than both of those ones,” White Diamond said. 

 

“I don’t even know what to do anymore,” Yellow Diamond said. “You are no longer in charge of the Authority.” 

 

“You can’t do that,” White Diamond said. 

 

“We voted on it,” Yellow Diamond said, gesturing to Blue Diamond. 

 

“Blue?” White Diamond said, “You voted against me?” 

 

“I’m sorry,” Blue Diamond said, “I just -- you know what she did to Pink.” 

 

“Pearl did not do that! We all know it was Rose Quartz!” White Diamond said. 

 

Blue Diamond sat next to White Diamond on the lounge chair and said, “It’s painful to lose someone. It’s even more painful if the person you lost was because of the doing of another you loved. We need to get both of them, your Pearl and Rose Quartz, and shatter them. They were both there when it happened.” 

 

White Diamond reluctantly nodded. 

 

“Or we could simply ensure they happen to be on Earth when something terrible happens,” Yellow Diamond rose her eyebrows at her sisters. 

 

“Let them escape?” Blue Diamond asked. 

 

“Let them escape back to their home on Earth, which happens to be a ticking time bomb,” Yellow Diamond said, “After they leave, White poofs the crowd.” 

 

“Then we put out a propaganda message,” White Diamond said with hollow eyes, “There were no protests. There was no rebellion. Life goes on as it was before.” 

 

“I’m glad you’ve come to your senses,” Yellow Diamond said. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter might take longer than the others. I have a pretty busy week coming up and I don't have anything partially written for the next chapter yet so it might be a while until the next update.


	11. Of Course I Did

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and for any comments/kudos!
> 
> *I'll edit again tomorrow for grammar errors.

 

As Pearl gazed out the window of Sheena’s room in The Cells, an intense combination of feeling of excitement, joy, nervousness and adrenaline hit her. Gems were chanting in the square. They were screaming “Down with the Diamonds!” “Renegade Pearl for President!” “No electricity until we have democracy!” 

 

“Pearl they want you to be President!” Steven said, squeezing next to Pearl as he looked out the window. “Do you guys have presidents here?” 

 

“We have Diamonds,” Pearl said. 

 

“P, you would love that job. You’d get to tell other gems what do to all the time,” Amethyst said, with a snicker. 

 

“A president is supposed to abide by the will of her citizens,” Pearl said, “not do whatever she pleases. Then she would be no better than a Diamond.” She smiled to herself and giddily walked into the middle of the room to do a twirl. “This is a real revolution! ” Pearl grabbed Sheena’s hands and did a short, goofy dance before spinning around. She pecked Sheena on the lips and then ran over to the bed, stood on top of it, and proclaimed, “We can write a Constitution! We can establish a democratic republic similar to Iceland, or France, or Planet 5438bx4!” 

 

“I’ve never seen her this excited before,” Sheena said with a wide smile. “Does she get like this a lot?” 

 

“Only when she talks about stuff like this,” Amethyst said with wide eyes, worried about the spectacle that was an excited, overzealous Pearl. 

 

“Or we could combine the most favorable aspects of each one and create our own system! So many possibilities!” Pearl said. She fell back, landing on the soft mattress of the bed. “I can write a Declaration of Gem Rights! Every gem will be equal. It wont matter what you were made to do. Any gem can be whatever they want. Just like Rose and I imagined. No more caste system! I can--”

 

“Go back to Earth?” Amethyst asked with a quiet, small voice. She stared at the ground as her purple hair fell over her eye. 

 

“What?” Pearl asked, “Oh, of course, Amethyst.” Pearl stood up and smoothed out her ruffled clothes. She cleared her throat. “Speaking of which, where is Peridot?” 

 

Amethyst leaned against the bookcase, still staring at the floor, “She’s not back yet, obviously. Did you forget how much time passed when you spazzed out for, like, twenty minutes?” 

 

“I did not spaz out!” Pearl said, crossing her arms. “What has gotten into you?” 

 

“I dunno,” Amethyst said, “What’s gotten into you, Pearl?” 

 

“Guys!” Steven interjected. He ran over to them and stood between them with his arms out to his side, signaling them to stay in place. “Come on! We’re about to go home. Okay?” 

 

“Yeah, Steven,” Amethyst said, “WE are about to go home. Pearl already is home.”

 

Steven’s arms slowly fell to his side. He looked up at Pearl with a heartbroken expression, “What does she mean?” 

 

“Pearl doesn’t want to leave, Steven,” Amethyst said. 

 

“That is untrue,” Pearl said looking away. 

 

“Then explain why you suddenly don’t seem to care about a giant gem cluster inside the Earth that is about to burst and destroy all of humanity!” Amethyst said. 

 

“Earth is going to explode?” Sheena said, panicked. 

 

“I care!” Pearl said. She pushed Steven aside and looked down at Amethyst. “Peridot isn’t here yet. What am I supposed to do? Wait and sulk even though a revolution, overthrowing the very gem that-that made me serve her against my will, might be taking place in the square right at this moment?” 

 

Suddenly, they heard a load, knock at the door. 

 

“That’s probably Peridot!” Steven said with a sing-songy voice as he attempted to ease the tension. 

 

“I’ll get it,” Pearl said. She gave Amethyst a dirty look and walked over to the door. 

 

“Is Earth going to blow up?” Sheena asked Amethyst. 

 

“If we get back in time, hopefully it wont,” Amethyst said. 

 

Before opening the door, Pearl took out her spear from her gem. When the door opened, Green Pearl, accompanied by a Sapphire and a Red Pearl, entered.

 

Green Pearl rushed into the room and embraced Pearl. “You did it!” Green Pearl said. “I told them the legends were true, that you and Rose Quartz were real, and they didn’t believe me, but here you are! You actually did it.” 

 

“The entire planet has no electricity,” Red Pearl said, smirking. “No one has seen any of the Diamonds since the revolt in the square. It’s only a matter of time before they surrender the planet to the common gems.” 

 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Pearl said. 

 

“I would,” the Sapphire said. 

 

Pearl looked at the Sapphire and realized this was the same one that sentenced her to go back to White Diamond. “You’re the Sapphire! You-you-” 

 

“Didn’t make a mistake?” the Sapphire asked. “I knew sending you back to White Diamond would not end well for the Diamond Authority. There were very few scenarios in which you would not start an uprising in some sort of way.” 

 

“Renegade Pearl,” Green Diamond said, blushing silver. “We-well we don’t really know how to ask you this, but we want you to run the planet when this is over.” 

 

“Really, we didn’t know that from all the annoying cheers outside,” Amethyst said with sarcasm.  

 

“Amethyst!” Steven said, “Come one, be nice about this.” 

 

“She’s going to leave, Steven! Don’t you get what’s going on?” Amethyst said with a harsh whisper. 

 

“I don’t think that’s the best idea,” Pearl said, blushing blue, to Green Pearl. 

 

“But you know how to write legislation!” Green Pearl said. “We have to start from scratch if we don’t want to end up with another Diamond!” 

 

Amethyst sighed. She looked down at Steven. “This is not how I was imagining this would turn out.” 

 

Steven shrugged, “Pearl looks so happy though.” 

 

“Steven, the EARTH is about to blow up and we’re here wasting time celebrating,” Amethyst said, waving her arms around. 

 

“We will get back in time. Hopefully Peridot will be here soon,” Steven said. “I am getting really worried though. It’s not like her to take this much time.” 

 

* * *

 

Peridot stood in the middle of the space dock, gesturing to her rusted limb enhancers. Several other peridots and a jasper were standing around her. 

 

“This is clearly wind damage,” Peridot said. “None of you have been to Mars before. It is windy, sandy, there’s also some frozen water. Oxidation! Things, like metal, oxidizes there. My gear getting rusted on that barren planet is entirely plausible.” 

 

“I suppose that makes sense,” a peridot with her gem on her back said. She put her hand on her chin with suspicion. As she slowly walked up to Peridot, Peridot began to shake slightly. “What doesn’t make sense,” the peridot with the gem on her back said, “is who gave you authorization, especially with the state your limb enhancers are in, to go on a mission in the middle of a code red?” 

 

“White Diamond did?” Peridot lied. 

 

The other peridot walked up to her and grabbed Peridot by her right arm limb enhancer. “You’re not supposed to be here.” The other peridot pulled Peridot’s limb enhancer off, revealing a short, green arm. 

 

Peridot giggled nervously. She knew she had to come up with something immediately or that jasper guarding all these peridots would poof her. This would ultimately cause Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl to become stranded in Sheena’s cell. 

 

Peridot regretted coming back here. Lapis was right. Nothing beat the freedom of Earth. She missed dancing in the cornfields, secretly practicing something all of the Crystal Gems seemed to excel at, and planting crops. Perhaps after this she would have the courage to dance with Lapis instead of dancing alone. 

 

This planet was devoid of anything remotely special, like cornfields. 

 

Peridot then shed the rest of her limb enhancers. She stood in front of all the other peridots and the one jasper and said. “Maybe I’m not supposed to be here.” 

 

The other peridot shook her head with a malicious smile. “Knew it. Jasper, take care of her.” 

 

As the jasper slowly approached her, Peridot sprinted toward the ships in the docking bay. 

 

The jasper did a spin dash toward Peridot. She stopped in front of Peridot and stood up, towering over Peridot.  Peridot looked around, panicked. She cowered as the jasper walked closer toward her. 

 

“How about we talk about this?” Peridot said with nervous laughter. 

 

“Talk?” the jasper said with a snicker. “I don’t ‘talk.” The jasper lunged toward Peridot. Peridot rolled away. She saw a pile of tools next to her. Peridot reached out toward the pile. She mustered all her strength to just focus on moving the tools in the air. 

 

Just as the jasper attempted to grab Peridot. A large wrench flew in the air, seemingly out of nowhere, and hit her in the head. 

 

“What the--” the jasper began to say before several other tools flew at her head repeatedly. 

 

Peridot ran toward the ship and up the loading dock. She entered into the control room and sat in the pilot’s chair. She put her hands in the computer and started the ship. 

* * *

 

Amethyst paced back and forth in Sheena’s cell. She attempted to block out the other gems praising Pearl. It wasn’t that she was jealous of Pearl. Amethyst did not want Pearl to stay on Homeworld. 

 

Earth wasn’t Earth without Pearl. 

 

Before Amethyst could pace around in one more circle, a large, green ship pulled up to the side of the window. A side-door of the ship slid open. 

 

“Finally!” Amethyst said. She signaled for Steven and Sheena to get into the ship. Steven lead Sheena onto the ship.  

 

“Hop in and hurry!” Peridot said, “I don’t know how long I programmed autopilot to hover!” 

 

Pearl hugged Green Pearl and said, “I will come back someday.” 

 

Green Pearl gave her a weak smile as she nodded. “I understand.” 

 

Amethyst grabbed Pearl’s hand and said, “We need to hurry! Before everything is destroyed on Earth!” 

 

“I understand the immediacy, Amethyst,” Pearl said rolling her eyes. She followed Amethyst onto the escape ship. They all walked down a long hallway and into the control room, where Peridot was attempting to program the ship to take off. 

 

“Just say it!” Amethyst said. “You don’t even like Earth! You just stayed there because you think it was what Rose wanted!” 

 

“It is what Rose wanted!” Pearl said.

 

“Well, what do you want to do, Pearl?” Amethyst asked. “What do you want? Hurry up and decide before Perri finally figures out how to program this ship!”

 

“I’m trying my best,” Peridot said.  

 

“Guys!” Steven said, “Come on! We did it! We should be happy! We rescued--” 

 

“It doesn’t matter what I want!” Pearl interrupted, ignoring Steven. “I promised Rose I would protect Earth!” 

 

At that moment, Peridot started the ship. They took off through the city streets, passing skyscrapers. As the ship gained altitude, they reached the atmosphere. The ship stalled for a moment, then took off. 

 

“Wow, that was easy,” Steven said. “I thought they would chase after us.” 

 

Just as Amethyst was about to speak, pearl held up one finger, singling her to be quiet.  “What do you mean, they haven’t sent anyone after us?” 

 

“Pearl, you can’t pause a fight!” Amethyst said. 

 

Pearl looked out of the round window of the ship. Steven was right. No one was chasing after them. “Perhaps they are too preoccupied with the revolution.” 

 

“Did you hear me, Pearl?!” Amethyst said. 

 

Pearl looked down at the ground and said with calm, tired demeanor, “I did. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I need to be alone for a while.” Pearl swiped left on the door pad to the control room and exited down the hall. 

 

“Is she okay?” Sheena asked. Her brow furrowed. 

 

“Pearl is never okay,” Amethyst said before walking out of the control room. 

 

Steven tried to smile at Sheena. “She’ll be okay.” 

 

_Rose gazed up at the sky. A large barbell-looking object was floating above Earth, obscuring the sun. Darkness spread across the Earth. Rose exchanged a grave look with Garnet._

 

_“It’s a weapon,” Rose said._

 

_Garnet nodded. “I don’t believe this will end well. We have been firing the cannons at it. Nothing has damaged it.”_

 

_“What’s going to happen?” Rose said, sucking on her lips, worried._

 

_“I’m not entirely sure. We cannot damage or hit it out of the atmosphere,” Garnet said. “Most likely they will drop it and...”_

 

_“And?” Rose asked. Her eyes widened as she stared up again at the large, round object floating in the sky._

 

_“That’s the question I have no answer to,” Garnet said._

 

_Rose’s eyes scanned the camp. “Where’s Pearl?”_

 

_Garnet gave the camp a once-over. She didn’t see Pearl among the other gems, “I don’t know.” Garnet shook her head, worried._

 

_“Come on,” Rose said, “we need to find her. Now.”_

 

_Garnet lowered her glasses. “If it drops, it’s probably going to be over. You want to find Pearl before they drop it. You’re giving up, aren’t you?” she asked with sad eyes._

 

_“I’m not sure,” Rose said. “When I find Pearl, I’ll know what to do.”_

 

_Rose ran through the camp. “Have you seen Pearl?’ she asked all the gems. None of them knew where she went._

 

_“I think she went after that giant Jasper,” an amethyst said._

 

_“What?” Rose asked with panicked eyes, “She did that? Right now? With that thing in the sky?” Rose turned to Garnet. “Why is she so freaking impulsive!”_

 

_“I thought that was what you liked about her,” Garnet said._

 

_“Is something...bad going to happen,” the amethyst asked as she pointed to the object in the sky. “Is that why you’re panicking about how Pearl is missing?”_

 

_Rose forced a smile. “Everything is going to be fine,” she said._

 

_Pearl has chased Jasper into the Strawberry fields. After some combat, Pearl found herself subdued._

 

_“Come on, you stupid pearl!” Jasper said as she had Pearl in a headlock. “Just cooperate. That way we’ll both live through this!”_

 

_“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Pearl asked as she attempted to squirm out of the headlock._

 

_“Look up there,” Jasper said, “What does that pretty little head of yours not understand about that being a geological weapon?”_

 

_“Let me go!” Pearl said._

 

_“I’m taking you to White Diamond! I know you’re her favorite toy. Lucky you. Because we both know you deserve to be shattered,” Jasper said. Her headlock around Pearl tightened. “Aren’t pearls supposed to be expert shape-shifters? Why aren’t you shape-shifting your way out of this?”_

 

_Pearl managed to summon her spear from her gem. She stabbed Jasper in the side, causing Jasper to release Pearl from her grip. Pearl began to sprint away, but Jasper spin rushed toward Pearl, grabbing her by the ankles. “I might even be able to have some fun with you before I hand you back off to White Diamond.”_

 

_Pearl’s skin crawled at the thought of entertaining Jasper._

 

_“I know what you’re thinking, Pearl-y,”Jasper said. “That if you’ve poofed three jaspers at once then why are you getting your butt kicked right now?” Jasper, holding Pearl by the ankle, rose Pearl above her head, so their eyes were aligned. “It’s because I’m not just any old jasper. I always complete my mission. I’m getting both of us off this planet before that things blows.”_

 

_Pearl cringed at the sight of Jasper’s piercing green eyes._

 

_“What is it?” Pearl asked, her head gestured to the object in the sky._

 

_“Baby, it’s going to fuck up all the gems on this world,” Jasper said. “That’s why right now, your best bet is to just give up and come with me.”_

 

_“Then just poof me and get this over with,” Pearl said._

 

_“If I poof you, then how are you going to entertain me on the way back to Homeworld?” Jasper said. “With the rate it takes Pearls to regenerate, I’ll be bored to tears for at least a month.”_

 

_“It doesn’t take me a month to regenerate,” Pearl said. She crossed her arms._

 

_Jasper brought her face up close to Pearl’s, “I don’t see what’s so special about you.”_

 

_“There isn’t anything special about me,” Pearl said._

 

_“That’s not what White Diamond says.”_

 

_“She doesn’t care for change,” Pearl said. “She thinks that if she loses me, then she’s incompetent. It’s an ego thing.”_

 

_“With the way she handled negotiations with you Crystal Gems, I’d say she is quite incompetent,” Jasper said. “I-I lost my Diamond because of her.  Because of Rose Quartz. Because of you.”_

 

_Pearl saw the tears accumulating in Jasper’s eyes. It was jarring; seeing someone with such a tough exterior upset like this. Pearl reached out and touched Jasper’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” Pearl said. “I am so sorry.”_

 

_“I should shatter you!” Jasper said, crying out._

 

_Then Pearl realized there was no reasoning with Jasper. She closed her eyes, calming herself._

 

_“What are you doing?!” Jasper said._

 

_Pearl allowed herself to shape-shift into a swan. She flapped her wings into Jasper’s face, disorienting the orange gem, and then flew away, up into the dark, gloomy sky. In the distance, Pearl heard Jasper’s ship take off and leave the atmosphere._

 

_“Pearl!” she heard someone say. Pearl scanned the ground for the owner to the voice she knew so well. Rose and Garnet were wandering through the Strawberry fields, wandering around and calling her name._

 

_Pearl flew down next to Rose and Garnet and landed, returning to her original form._

 

 _“Pearl!” Rose said with tears in her eyes as she squeezed Pearl tightly. “Thank the stars.”_ _She looked down at Pearl, still holding her in an embrace, and asked, “Where were you? I was so worried!” She rested her forehead on Pearl’s, feeling the light emitting from their gems._

_“What’s going-” Pearl began to say._

 

_Then Rose desperately kissed Pearl like it was the last time they would ever see each other._

 

_The large barbell-shaped figure in the sky dropped to the ground. A white light flashed in the distance. Rose formed a bubble around Garnet, Pearl and herself. The light blinked past them, traversing the entire field and the whole planet._

 

_Rose kept the pink bubble in tact._

 

_Garnet was staring out into the distance in silence._

 

_Pearl sat up. She stood up next to Garnet._

 

_“It looks the same,” Rose said._

 

_“Maybe it was a rouse?” Pearl said._

 

_“That’s wishful thinking, Pearl,” Garnet said._

 

_A giant beast that has the body of a cat and the face and stingers of a scorpion molded together walked by. It had a swirling purple and blue pattern on its fur._

 

_“No,” Rose shook her head. “What did they do to her?”_

 

_Pearl and Garnet exchanged looks. “It’s an Agate,” Pearl said._

 

_“I know,” Garnet said._

 

_“What do we do?” Pearl asked._

 

_“We poof them,” Rose said, “and figure out a way to save them.”_

 

_“Them?” Garnet asked._

 

_“All of them,” Rose said. “I must save all of them. This is my fault.”_

* * *

Sheena walked down the long hallway to the ship, knocking on different doors until she heard someone say, “What?” 

 

“Pearl? It’s me. It’s--” 

 

“Swipe left on the door pad,” Pearl said from behind the door. 

 

Sheen swiped left and entered the room. She found Pearl sitting on the floor, curled up with her knees to her chest. “Are you okay?” Sheena asked. 

 

Pearl shook her head and calmly said, “No.” 

 

“Can I sit next to you?” Sheena asked. “I understand if you want to be alone.” 

 

“It’s okay,” Pearl said. “You can sit.” She felt Sheena put her hand on her shoulder as she sat down next to Pearl. 

 

“Thank you for saving me,” Sheena whispered. “No one has ever done something like that for me before.” Sheena gently rubbed Pearl’s shoulder. 

 

“Of course I saved you,” Pearl said. Her lips curled into a slight smile. Pearl leaned into Sheena and allowed Sheena to put her arm around her. "Do you ever wonder if you made the right choice?" 

 

"Is this about staying on your Homeworld?" 

 

"No," Pearl said. "Amethyst is overreacting about that." 

 

"Good. I'm glad you're not going to stay," Sheena said, as she buried her face in Pearl's hair. "Almost all the time, I guess." 

 

"All the time what?" 

 

"I'm wondering if I made the right choice." 

 

"Even right now?" 

 

"Not right now though," Sheena said, whispering in Pearl's ear. 

 

"Good," Pearl said. 

 

 

 

 


	12. When You Would Do Anything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? Another chapter already? (There's a snowstorm where I live, I already finished all of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 on Netflix, and I couldn't leave the house today because the roads suck, so here's another chapter).
> 
> Thanks for comments and kudos!
> 
> (As always, I post these at night and I will try and fix grammar errors later when I'm not really tired)

 

 

  _Amethyst jumped up and down on top of a large rock. She did a handstand, then attempted to do one with only one hand. “Look!” Amethyst said._

 

_Rose and Pearl were laughing as they talked while they sat on the beach and waited for the sunset. They would typically do this at least once a week. Amethyst recently stole a human calendar. She started looking at what humans called, “days of the week.” It was interesting. They measured time. Pearl said time was an illusion, but Amethyst liked the idea of time. It marked occasions and made everything feel more important. Maybe the feeling of importance was the illusion, but she did not care._

 

_“Hey!” Amethyst said. “Hey! Look. Pearl! Look!”_

 

_Amethyst saw Rose tap Pearl on the shoulder and point over at Amethyst._

 

_“Very good, Amethyst!” Pearl said, waving as she yelled over. “You have great balance.”_

 

_“I know, right?” Amethyst said. She hopped off the rock and walked over to Rose and Pearl. She plopped down right in front of them, lying in the sand. “Watcha doin.?” she asked._

 

_“We’re waiting for the sunset,” Rose said._

 

_“Boring,” Amethyst said._

 

_“It’s hardly boring,” Pearl said._

 

_“Are you going to explain science to me now?” Amethyst asked. “Because I’m not going to listen anyway, so you might as well skip it.”_

 

_Rose giggled as Pearl narrowed her eyes at Amethyst. “Fine, Amethyst,” Pearl said, crossing her arms, “I will not enlighten you on the matters of how light particles are scattered by molecules and--”_

 

_Amethyst pretended to sleep, snoring loudly. Rose covered her mouth as she tried not to laugh._

 

_“Very funny. You don’t need sleep,” Pearl said with a serious demeanor._

 

_“I know,” Amethyst said. A mischievous smile crept across her lips, “That’s what makes the joke funnier.”_

 

_“She has a point, Pearl,” Rose said, raising her eyebrows at Pearl._

 

_Pearl then grinned, “I suppose that does make it more humorous.” She giggled and nodded to Amethyst._

 

_“Can you show me?” Amethyst asked. “I’ve been dying for you to show me, but stuff like battling monsters and saving some stupid humans in the bay keep coming up.”_

 

_Pearl and Rose exchanged looks. “It would be quite helpful if she could fuse with one of us,” Pearl said._

 

_“Alright,” Rose said. She stood up and walked a bit farther down the beach. Pearl followed and stood a short distance away from Rose._

 

_“First,” Pearl said, “you must become at peace with yourself.”_

 

_“Or at least partly,” Rose said._

 

_“Once you and your partner establish a, well, a--” Pearl began to say._

 

_“Closer connection,” Rose said._

 

_“Then you wont even need to do the dance,” Pearl said._

 

_“Then why do you two do the dance most of the time?” Amethyst said._

 

_Pearl blushed and looked at the ground._

 

_Rose smiled and said, “Sometimes, when you’re not in a crucial situation, the dance is not necessary, but it's something you still want to do.”_

 

_Pearl cleared her throat. “First you must bow to your partner to establish agreement.”_

 

_Rose and Pearl bowed to one another._

 

_“Then,” Pearl said, “you dance in the way that defines you. The marriage of the two styles will put aside your differences and allow you to decide who you will be together.”_

 

_Pearl stood up on her toes. Rose walked behind Pearl and took Pearl’s left land in her own. They danced, stepping backwards with a quiet grace. Rose twirled Pearl around until Pearl stopped, leaning away and rising her leg behind her. Then Rose grasped Pearl’s inner thigh and picked her up. Rose’s cheek was pressed to Pearl’s cheek and Rose’s eyes were closed as if this experience they had shared thousands of times before was happening for the first time. Together they twirled around until, Rose gently allowed Pearl to stand on the ground. Pearl faced Rose, who put her left hand n the small of Pearl’s back. Their fingers intertwined as Rose led Pearl in a rhythmic waltz. Their gems began to glow._

 

_Behind them the sky began to swirl into pink and purple colors, as if the light was bending and separating in the sky for this very occasion; the fusion dance._

 

_Amethyst’s eyes widened. She had seen fusion dances before. She had seen Ruby and Sapphire fuse together after they separated for an argument, but it wasn’t a long dance. They could fuse by just holding hands._

 

_She had seen Garnet and Pearl fuse when there was a crucial situation. They had a high energy dance, where Garnet would throw Pearl up in the air and catch her._

 

_Garnet and Rose would dance like two friends who had known each other all their lives._

 

_This was different. This was a beautiful exhibition of grace and love._

 

_With the sunset behind them, Rose held Pearl close and dipped her. Pearl leaned into Rose and allowed her leg to hook around Rose’s waist before pointing her leg straight up into the air._

 

_Then their light faded into one another. Rainbow Quartz bent down and waved to Amethyst._

* * *

 

Garnet stood in the drill, near the cluster. Next to her was Lapis. Connie had to stay above ground because they did not want to take any chances if her body could not take the pressure from being in the core of the Earth. 

 

“I’m going to get out and try to bubble this thing,” Garnet said to Lapis. 

 

“Be careful,” Lapis said. 

 

Bursts of light were emitting from the cluster like sparks of electricity. 

 

Garnet stood on top of the ship. She attempted to bubble the large, colorful ball of gem shards, but it failed. The bubbled popped. She tried again and again, failing each time. 

 

Her frustration reached its apex when her tenth bubble failed. Garnet broke apart. 

 

“You knew it was a possibility that if Steven went, they would come back late! Yet you insisted that he go!” Ruby said. Fire emitted from her feet as she paced back and forth on top of the drill. 

 

Sapphire sat down. She calmly stated, “We knew that was a slim possibility. I have faith that Steven, Amethyst, Pearl, and Peridot will come back.” 

 

“Yeah! But will the Earth still be here when they do?!” Ruby said, throwing her arms up in the air. “Pearl had that key. We knew that. She didn’t need Amethyst and Steven to help her. She could have rescued that human in time and everything would have been fine!” 

 

“We both know there was a chance that Pearl would have stayed there if it weren’t for Steven and Amethyst,” Sapphire said. The ship below her began to freeze. 

 

Lapis saw frost form on the window. 

 

“No!” Ruby said. “Pearl never would have stayed with White Diamond!” 

 

“We don’t now that for sure,” Sapphire said. 

 

“That’s not true and I resent the fact that you’re making this fight about Pearl, when we both know it’s because you wouldn’t let me go after Steven and prevent him from leaving Earth!” Ruby said. 

 

“I believe it is better this way,” Sapphire said. 

 

“Well, it’s not,” Ruby said. She sat down next to Sapphire. “What are we going to do?” 

 

“I don’t know,” Sapphire shook her head. “I really don’t know. It all depends on if they make it back in time.” 

 

Ruby buried her hands in her face. “I sure hope they do.” She grasped Sapphire’s hand, who smiled. 

 

“Let’s say they will?” Sapphire asked. 

 

Ruby nodded. 

 

Then their light fused, forming Garnet.

 

* * *

 

 

Pearl looked over and saw that Sheena was asleep. She wished she had a blanket or something warm to put over her. She knew humans would get cold when they were sleeping. She quietly removed herself from Sheena’s embrace and left the room. 

 

She walked down the hall until she heard Amethyst’s loud and obnoxious voice from behind one of the doors. Pearl sighed. She had to confront Amethyst about this whole ordeal. Sometimes she forgot how it was before...

 

Pearl swiped left on the door pad. The door opened. Amethyst was sitting back in a chair, her feet were up on a desk and her arms were behind her head. In front of her was a video-chat screen. Other Amethysts, the ones from the human zoo, were talking to her over the device. 

 

“So then, I’m in the Great Hall. White Diamond is sitting on her throne. The place is packed!” Amethyst said. 

 

“White Diamond was there?” one of the amethysts on the screen asked. 

 

“You bet she was,” Amethyst said, bragging and not seeing Pearl enter the room. “Then Pearl and I fused in front of the entire court!” 

 

“You fused with a pearl?!” the other amethyst on the vid-chat asked. 

 

“It’s really no big deal,” Amethyst said. “We fuse all the time. Anyway, so we battle White Diamond!" 

 

"You took on WD?" the other amethyst asked with wide eyes. 

 

"Fuck yeah," Amethyst said. "We didn't win, but like Opal, she's our fusion, was such a badass. She was like firing arrows at all these rubies and then she used Pearl's spear to like fight with White Diamond. Then she used my whips to subdue her!" 

 

"Your fusion took WD down?" the other amethyst asked with ehr mouth hanging open. 

 

"Yeah!" Amethyst said. "Then we ran away and go to The Cells and cut the power to the entire capital city!”

 

Pearl smirked. She leaned against the door frame, watching Amethyst with amusement.

 

“No freaking way!” the other amethysts said in unison. 

 

“Freaking way!” Amethyst said. “Then this whole revolution started, like you guys better motor it over there before it’s over!” 

 

“There’s a revolution?” an amethyst on the vid-chat asked. 

 

“You bet. The Diamonds are over. O-V-E-R,” Amethyst said. 

 

“We gotta go then!” the amethyst on the vid-chat said. “Bye, girl!” 

 

“Good luck,” Amethyst said as she finger pointed at the screen. 

 

Pearl knocked on the doorframe. Amethyst turned around and saw Pearl in the doorway. 

 

“Hi,” Pearl said. 

 

“Hi,” Amethyst said. Her hair fell over her eyes. “Look,”she said. “I’m sorry--” 

 

“No,” Pearl put her hands up in defiance. “I am sorry.” She walked into the room and stood in front of Amethyst. “I got too caught up with everything. I completely forgot why we were doing this in the first place and it’s because I’m selfish and I’m--” 

 

“A complete badass for starting a revolution?” Amethyst said with a smirk.

 

“I wasn’t going to say that!” Pearl said. 

 

“P,” Amethyst shook her head, “I’m sorry I overreacted. I was just so worried you wouldn't want to come back and... like, well this isn’t easy for me to say and stuff, but...I used to, like, look up to you.” 

 

“What?” Pearl said, blushing. “No, I always thought you wanted to be like Rose.” 

 

“Because she was a quartz too?” Amethyst asked. 

 

“Well, yes,” Pearl said, shrugging. 

 

Amethyst shook her head. “I thought you were so cool. Like, the first time I saw you, you poofed a giant monster right next to my hole in the canyon. It was so awesome! Rose was already with me, asking questions about how I got there. Then you came over and immediately thought I was an agent from Homeworld and I was like, what the hell is Homeworld? Rose gave you this, like this, death look.” 

 

“Oh, I remember that look,” Pearl laughed. 

 

“She gave you that look all the time,” Amethyst said. “That was when you would do anything. You threw caution to the wind.” 

 

“Remember when we were retrieving some old cannons in the North?” 

 

“And you started climbing up the cliff that had that octopus thing living in one of the caves off the cliffs?” 

 

“Rose was like, ‘Pearl! You’re going to fall and crack your gem! Climb down now!’” Pearl said, smiling. 

 

“And you were like, ‘Just heal me if that happens!’” Amethyst began cracking up. “She was so pissed. You didn’t fall though. You poofed that freaking octopus thing. Man, you were awesome. And you laughed. And you didn’t give a shit about-about--” 

 

“Unnecessary logistics and caution?” Pearl asked. 

 

“Yeah. And you could take a joke,” Amethyst said. 

 

“I know,” Pearl said. “I am sorry for how I treat you sometimes, Amethyst.” 

 

They sat in silence for a moment. 

 

Amethyst pulled her hair away from her face. “Do you think you will ever be like that again?” 

 

Pearl began to tear up. She wanted to be like that again. She wanted to be carefree and fun and adventurous. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever be completely like that again.” 

 

Amethyst nodded, “That’s okay.” She hugged Pearl, squeezing her so tight as if Pearl would disappear into thin air if Amethyst let go. "I just didn't want to lose you too." 

 

"I know," Pearl said. 

 

* * *

 

White Diamond stood in the Great Hall. In a moment, she would have to go into the square and poof all the revolting gems. Sometimes she wanted to just give up and let them make their own decisions. She was getting tired. Being immortal was an exhausting experience. It never ended, literally. 

 

For years she had thought that Pearl succumbed to the Corrupted Bomb. When it was revealed that Pearl was still on Earth and fraternizing with humans who resembled Rose, White Diamond knew she had to show Pearl the way back to how things used to be; how it should be. 

 

White Diamond understood the appeal of Rose Quartz. She was charismatic, competent, beautiful, and loving. 

 

White Diamond wished she had the ability to love someone properly.

 

Her sisters, Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond entered the Great Room. 

 

“Ready?” Yellow Diamond asked. 

 

“Are you sure, we can’t just take a quick trip to Earth to save Pearl before the--” White Diamond began.

 

“We discussed this,” Yellow Diamond said, sighing. She put her hand on White Diamond’s shoulder. “We let them escape on purpose.” 

 

“I know,” White Diamond said. 

 

“So we can shatter all the traitors at once when the cluster blows,” Blue Diamond said, gritting her teeth. 

 

“I know,” White Diamond said, “and, don’t get me wrong or anything. It’s a great plan. But what if--kay? What if we went there and saved Pearl before the Earth blows up?” 

 

“Why are you...” Yellow Diamond looked around the room. She whispered, “‘in love,’ with this pearl? It’s upsetting to me how far you’re taking this. She makes you incompetent. Sister, you’re scaring me.”

 

“Sometimes you get a feeling about another gem that you cannot control,” White Diamond said. “She was there for me, when I lost, when I won, when I just needed someone to consol me and tell me everything was going to be okay. You can’t decide how you feel. It just happens. I can’t stop it. I’m not sure I’m even sorry. You see, life gets tough at your darkest moments. No one was there for me at those moments, except her.” 

 

“She caused some those moments,” Yellow Diamond said. “She shattered our sister. She left. She’s gone. She deserves to succumb to the cluster.” 

 

“Let her go,” Blue Diamond said. 

 

“Sister,” Yellow Diamond said. She cradled White Diamond’s face in her hands, “You are the most powerful gem in the Universe. You need to start acting like it again.” 

 

White Diamond nodded. She took her cane out of her gem and walked out of the Great Hall. 

 

Out in the streets, she took her cane and pointed it at the crowds, poofing all the protesting gems as she walked down the street and into the large crowd in the square. 

 

When she made it tot he square, she put the cane above her head, spun it around in her fingers and pointed it at the crowd, poofing all of the gems. Simultaneously, all of their gems hit the cobblestones.

 

The Revolution, in the eyes of the Diamonds, was over. All the rebels were poofed. 


	13. The Only Good Thing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I've been busy lately, so the updates are probably not going to be as frequent as they were before. Looks like I'll probably have fifteen or sixteen chapters. 
> 
> (Also the "A" button on my computer is kind of broken, so Pearl might be spelled Perl in some spots. I will fix them all eventually).
> 
> Thanks for the comments and kudos!

White Diamond looked around the square. Peridots and apatites were clearing up the gems of the rebels in the square according to approximate regeneration time. 

 

She grabbed the nearest peridot and grabbed her by the shoulder. The peridot looked up at her, terrified as her body shook. 

 

“You,” White Diamond said. “Can you drive a Right Arm ship?” 

 

“Is that we call them? I thought they were called the Dextura-Xs,” the peridot said. 

 

“Whatever,” White Diamond said. “Can you fly one?” 

 

“Of course I can fly one,” the peridot said. 

 

“Let’s go then,” White Diamond said, gesturing the peridot to follow her. 

 

“Yes, My Diamond!” The peridot bubbled the gem she picked up and scampered after White Diamond. “Where are we going?!”

 

“Earth,” White Diamond said without looking back.  

 

“What?!” the peridot stopped in her tracks in disbelief. “But-but-- aren’t they going to blow Earth up?” 

 

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” White Diamond said. “Come on or I’ll shatter you or whatever.” 

 

The peridot’s eyes widened, “Coming my Diamond!” 

* * *

 

 

Peridot landed the ship on the beach. When they emerged from the ship, Steven saw the entirety of Beach City freaking out and packing all their belongings into their cars. 

 

“Why do we live here?!” Steven heard Fryman yelling as he and Peedie forced Ronaldo into their SUV. 

 

“But the Great Diamond Authority, Dad!” Ronaldo said. 

 

Peridot laughed and said, “Am I the only one who finds it hysterical that the guy everyone thinks is crazy is right?” 

 

“Yeah, it’s hilarious, Perri,” Amethyst said sarcastically. She started jogging toward the Beach House. “Guys! We have to haul it over to the Alpha Kindergarten!” 

 

“I need you to stay at the Beach House,” Pearl said to Sheena as she grabbed her hand and guided her to the Beach House. 

 

Steven stood behind for a moment and observed the town freaking out. Mayor Dewey was running around with a megaphone, attempting to pacify the residents. Sadie and Lars were kissing goodbye. The Pizza family was loading up their cars as their daughters fought bout whose suitcase was whose. Onion looked over at Steven and gave him the thumbs up. At least Onion believed in him. Steven gave him the thumbs up back. 

 

He felt partly responsible. Maybe he shouldn’t have gone after Pearl. Homeworld wasn’t his home. He felt torn. It was like there was no right choice to make. 

 

You could easily screw up. You could spend your whole life believing you’re right or persuading yourself you are right and be completely in the wrong. It was like how he had to bubble Bismuth. She thought she was right. Maybe she was? No, Steven thought. Shattering is never the answer. If there was one thing he was sure about, it was that his mother never wanted to shatter another gem again, otherwise she would have never bubbled Bismuth and hid her gem in Lion. 

 

However, you could also admit your mistakes and yet still keep making them. 

 

Earth was his home, but Pearl was, admittedly, the closest thing he had to a real mother; like the ones on TV or like Connie’s Mom. She yelled at him for being in dangerous situations and made sure he, “Ate food to stay alive. You need that, right, Steven? I don’t want you eating french fries out of trashcans like certain individuals I will not mention.” 

 

He had to go after Pearl. He wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if he didn’t. 

 

Are there no such things as true right and wrong? His mother had kept dark secrets, yet she was regarded as a shining example of pure good. 

 

“Yo, Steven! Hurry up!” Amethyst yelled back to him. 

 

Steven ran toward the beach house. He wondered where his dad was and if he was okay. 

 

“Amethyst! My dad! I have to--” 

 

“Your dad wont exist if we don’t stop--” 

 

The ground rumbled. This time, much longer than it had before. 

 

“You get it now?” Amethyst yelled back. “We gotta ago!”

 

When Steven opened the screen door to the beach house, he saw Sheen staring at the painting of Rose above the door. Peridot stood on the warp pad and transported to the Alpha Kindergarten alone. 

 

“Who’s that?” Sheena asked with her mouth hanging open slightly. 

 

“That’s my mom,” Steven said. He saw Pearl burying her face in her hands. Clearly, with all the chaos going on, she had forgotten about the picture of Rose about the door and how much Rose resembled her new girlfriend. 

 

“I thought Pearl was your mo--nevermind. Where is she?” Sheena asked. Her eyes shifted around the room. “Where is you mom?” 

 

“She’s gone,” Amethyst said. 

 

“Where did she go?” Sheena asked. 

 

“She--she-” Amethyst struggled to say the exact words. 

 

Steven looked down at the ground. 

 

“Rose died,” Pearl said. Amethyst and Steven looked over at Pearl with wide eyes. It was the first time she had said it out loud. 

 

_Pearl sat on the edge of a cliff with her knees curled up into her stomach. Tears fell slowly in little droplets from her eyes. For the past few hours, she had tried to convince Rose to not go through with this, but Rose kept insisting. After bawling, Pearl didn’t have any energy left to cry anymore._

 

_“You think you’re so selfless,” Pearl said,“but you’re not, Rose. This is the most selfish thing you’ve ever done.”_

 

_“My Pearl,” Rose said, “please, come here.”_

 

_Pearl shook her head and felt the oncoming eruption of tears flowing again. As she coughed through the loud sobs, she felt Rose gently grab her in an embrace, taking her into her arms._

 

_“No, Rose,” Pearl said, “you’re not supposed to forgive me for saying that! You’re supposed to walk--you’re supposed to walk away and hate me.”_

 

_“Shhhh,” Rose said as she brushed her fingers through Pearl’s hair. “I love you. I could never hate you.”_

 

_“It was supposed to be forever. We were supposed to be forever,” Pearl said. “Now, after it happens, I’ll only have nine months left with you. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This wasn’t the agreement. You were supposed to see the human man and that was it. This was not part of the agreement!”_

 

_“I know,” Rose said, “I know. I’m so sorry.”_

 

_Pearl felt Rose’s tears fall into her hair. The droplets made their way to her forehead. She could not believe Rose was crying._

 

_“I’ve caused so much destruction in this world,” Rose said. “Horrible, horrible things have happened that are all my fault. This may be the only good thing that I will be capable of doing.”_

 

_Pearl shook her head, “They weren’t your fault. Some of them were--”_

 

_“No, Pearl,” Rose said. “It’s all my fault. It’s my fault they were corrupted. What-what happened to Pink Diamond was my fault. I tried so hard to do good. It’s never as easy as you imagine it to be. I can’t be good, but this child will be able to be. When I give up my form, this child will be able to grow and change and understand what we can’t.”_

 

_They were quiet for a moment. Pearl finally understood. She didn’t like it. She didn’t want it to happen. She didn’t think it needed to happen. But it was Rose wanted more than anything in the universe; she wanted to do something truly good._

 

_“We wont be able to fuse once you are gestating the human,” Pearl said._

 

_Rose shook her head. “No.”_

 

_Pearl nodded._

 

_“One last time so we can say goodbye to Rainbow Quartz?” Rose asked._

 

_Pearl nodded, but she also remained silent. She looked up at Rose with large, hurt blue eyes._

 

_“Say it, Pearl,” Rose whispered into Pearl’s ear._

 

_“I-I want to love you-love you physically. Like two human women would.”_

 

_Rose buried her head in Pearl’s shoulder._

 

“So Steven was Rose’s son and now you have Steven because she and you were...” Sheena began to say. “Okay. I understand.” 

 

The ground shook again. The house shook. Books fell off the walls. The television fell over, cracking the screen. 

 

Sheena nodded, “Pearl, we can talk about this later.” 

 

“Please stay here?” Pearl asked, as she hugged herself, digging her fingers into her stomach. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.” 

 

“Okay,” Sheena said, still in slight shock from the picture of the pink-hired women in front of her. “I honestly don’t know if there’s a safer place to be, so okay.” She kept nodding. “Save the Earth. Please.” 

 

Peridot suddenly warped back to the beach house. She stood on the warp pad, confused and said, “What are we lally-gaggin for? I learned that phrase from a film I saw on Netflix called, _Muppets Treasure Island_.” 

 

“I am so, canceling your Netflix subscription, you clod!” Amethyst said. She shook her head as her hands balled into fists, irritated at Peridot for unknowingly making a joke. 

 

“What did you call me?” Peridot asked.

 

“We don’t have time for this!” Pearl said, suddenly enraged. “Let’s go and deal with this fucking mess I made seven thousand years ago!” She took her spear out of her gem and joined Peridot on the warp pad.  

 

Pearl was going to avenge all of the mistakes she and Rose had ever made. 

 

“Pearl did you just--” Steven began to say. 

 

“Hell yeah she did!” Amethyst said. “I’ve heard stories about this side of Pearl, but I’ve never seen her actually behave like this!” Amethyst’s eyes beamed at Pearl. 

 

“Like what?” Steven asked, worried. 

 

“Like the one who took out five Jaspers in Blue Diamond’s court,” Amethyst said as she joined Pearl and Peridot on the warp pad. 

 

When they warped to the Alph Kindergarten, Steven looked over at Pearl who was floating with a perpetual frown and her arms crossed. He tugged on her ballet tutu and smiled up at her. For a moment, she dropped her serious demeanor and smiled back at him. 

 

The Alpha Kindergarten canyon was dark. Rocks were scattered everywhere. 

 

“I don’t remember it having this many rocks,” Amethyst said. 

 

“That’s because there weren’t that many before,” Pearl said. “They’ve fallen from all of these earthquakes.” 

 

Pearl sprinted over to the base set up by the Diamond Authority when they started the kindergarten. When she realized she was much farther ahead of the others, Pearl waited, tapping her foot for Peridot and Amethyst to follow her. “Well?” Pearl said. 

 

“She looks intense,” Peridot whispered to Amethyst and Steven.

 

“I know,” Amethyst said with a smirk. 

 

“It’s kinda scary,” Steven said.

 

“We should keep up with her,” Amethyst said. 

 

They entered the base and saw Garnet, Lapis, and Connie waiting with pensive, worried expressions. Connie’s eyes lit up once she saw Steven. 

 

“Steven!” Connie said. She ran over and hugged him tight. She then looked up at Pearl, “You’re safe!” before also embracing Pearl. 

 

“Hey G! Whats up Lazuli?” Amethyst said. 

 

Peridot ran up to Lapis and gave her an uncomfortable hug. “You were right!” Peridot said, “It’s horrible there! Much worse than I remember.” 

 

“I know,” Lapis said as she rubbed the back of Peridot’s head. 

 

Pearl patted Connie on the head, “Thank you, Connie.” Pearl looked over at Garnet ad asked, “Status update?” 

 

“Nice to see you too,” Garnet said, smirking, like she knew Pearl would change back to her rebel demeanor after visiting Homeworld. 

 

“We can hug and be sentimental when we clear this problem up,” Pearl said. 

 

“We’ve attempted to bubble the Cluster like Steven did the first time with no luck,” Garnet said. “We were hoping that maybe Steven’s bubbles would be more effective considering he uses them for defensive combat.” 

 

“Agreed,” Pearl said. 

 

“So I’m going to bubble it again?” Steven asked. 

 

Pearl nodded.

 

“Hopefully it will work,” Garnet said. She clenched her fists. “It has to work.” 

 

As they were about to descend into the Earth through the hole Garnet, Lapis, and Connie made through the canyon, a large White Arm spaceship descended onto the ground. 

 

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” Amethyst said. She kicked a rock in frustration.  

 

"What's that?" Connie asked. 

 

"It's White Diamond," Lapis said. "We should leave." 

 

"Leave the Kindergarten?" Connie asked. 

 

"We should leave Earth, the Galaxy, just go anywhere that's not here," Lapis said with wide eyes. 

 

Pearl buried her face into her hands as White Diamond emerged from the spaceship. This couldn’t be happening, not again.  This always happened. Her past followed her like she was a magnet. 

 

The Crystal Gems took out their weapons, ready for combat when White Diamond waved her arms back and forth. “I’m not here to fight!” she said. “I can stop the cluster.” 

 

The Crystal Gems exchanged looks, unsure if they should trust her. Pearl peaked out, allowing herself a gap between her fingers. “I’ll go talk to her,” she mumbled as she tighten the grip on her spear. 

 

“You don’t have to go,” Amethyst said. 

 

Pearl felt Garnet’s hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be okay, Garnet,” Pearl said. 

 

“You sure?” Garnet asked. 

 

“Are you crazy?!” Amethyst said. “She tried to poof and kidnap us! She kidnapped you! She--” 

 

“I trust her,” Pearl said and added, “unfortunately.” 

 

Pearl slowly walked up to White Diamond. White Diamond kneeled down. She looked at Pearl, admiring her hair. 

 

“I like your form,” White Diamond said. “I should have let you pick your own.” 

 

“Yes,” Pearl said. “There were many things you should have done.” 

 

“I can stop the cluster,” White Diamond said. 

 

Pearl looked down at the ground and then up at White Diamond, “I will go with you if you stop the cluster. Where is the contract?” 

 

“No contract,” White Diamond said. She reached out toward Pearl, caressing her cheek with the back of her hand. “You don’t have to come with me.” 

 

"There’s no catch?” Pearl asked, confused. 

 

White Diamond shook her head, “No catch. No contract.” 

 

“No contract? Why?” Pearl asked in amazement. 

 

“Because,” White Diamond said, “I want you to be happy. You are not happy with me. I am not going to force you to be with me--to be my Pearl.”

 

Pearl’s eyes welled up. “Good. Because you are not my Diamond. I have no Diamond. I belong to nobody. A contract is merely a hologram saved in a computer. I can choose to disregard it. I have been disregarding it since the day I left with Rose Quartz.” 

 

“I am sorry,” White Diamond said, “Pearl, for all that I have put you through.” 

 

“Okay,” Pearl said. 

 

“It’s just that I-I love you.” 

 

“I know,” Pearl said. She looked down at the ground. 

 

“I understand you don’t feel the same,” White Diamond said.

 

“I did once,” Pearl said, raising her eyebrows. She looked up at White Diamond and said, “But then once, some time around ten thousand years ago, I misspoke in front of Yellow Diamond and you said you were going to punish me. You said you were going to make me dance until I was physically exhausted. Then you threatened to shatter me. After Yellow Diamond left, you told me it was all for show and you weren’t going to punish me at all. That’s when I realized something; you could have changed the rules. You could have eliminated the entire caste system and you didn’t. You never even thought of it as an option. You don’t love me. You never did. Otherwise you would have changed it. You would have freed me and allowed me to have the choice in loving you back instead of forcing me to.” 

 

White Diamond looked down at Pearl and observed her wide blue eyes filled with tears. White Diamond felt that she owed Pearl this; she would save Earth for Pearl. 

 

Pearl turned around and walked back toward the Crystal Gems. “She knows how to fix the cluster,” Pearl said with a solemn tone. 

 

Just when Steven was about to ask how White Diamond could stop the Cluster, the earth began to shake again. Pearl saw a rock fall from the bedrock of the canyon and hit Steven on the head. 

 

“Steven!” Pearl shrieked as she ran over to an unconscious Steven lying on the ground. 

* * *

 

 

Yellow Diamond stormed around the Great Diamond Authority palace as she looked for her sister White Diamond. Yellow Pearl scampered behind her, "Perhaps she is just taking a tour of the galaxy?" 

 

"A tour of the galaxy?" Yellow Diamond said. Her face soured into an expression of disgust. "Are you really that much of an idiot?" 

 

Yellow Pearl froze as she searched her mind for the correct answer to the question. She did not want to anger Yellow Diamond. "Yes," Yellow Pearl said. 

 

"She's on Earth," Yellow Diamond said. She scrunched her nose and sighed. "And now I have to go and clean up her mess." Yellow Diamond shook her head. "I just want things to be simple, but she insists on complicating them." 

 

"If only she would be more like you, My Diamond," Yellow Pearl said. 

 

"I should be more like her," Yellow Diamond said. "I should be the one with her powers. She is not wise enough to use them responsibly." 

 

"You could acquire her powers, My Diamond," Yellow Pearl said tilting her head and raising her eyebrows. 

 

"I could," Yellow Diamond said.

 

"Then you would be the most powerful gem in the universe, My Diamond," Yellow Pearl said. 

 

"Prepare the ship to Earth," Yellow Diamond said. "Well done." She patted Yellow Pearl on the top of her head. Yellow Pearl smiled like she had just experienced the most important moment in her life; acceptance of one of her ideas from a Diamond. 

 

 

 


	14. Your Mother Couldn't Either

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers! I am truly sorry for the long update. I now have a plan for how this fic ends and will try to finish this by the end of next month (January 2018). 
> 
> Thanks for reading.

Steven felt weightless. He opened his eyes and just saw pink all around him. For a moment, he thought he might be in Rose’s room, but when he looked around more, he just saw this endless, pink void. 

 

Then he realized he was floating. 

 

“Yikes!” he panicked for a moment, throwing a physical fit in the air, spinning and tossing.He calmed himself down, breathing in deep. Steven tried to make swimming stroke motions with his legs and arms. He then propelled through the void like an astronaut in a space station. 

 

After floating for a few minutes, he tried to call out for Lion. He had to be in some type of room his mother made. The void was pink after all. His mother was known for her association with the color. 

 

In the distance, he saw a dark pink dot. 

 

“Mom?” Steven mumbled to himself. “Mom!” he then yelled as he tried to float faster to the dark pink dot. “Mom!” Steven yelled. 

 

When he had a better view of the dark pink dot, he saw a tall, pink woman with straw-straight pink hair, sitting cross-legged, as if she was meditating. She was also floating. There was no floor here. Gravity was obsolete. 

 

This woman was not his mother. 

 

“He-hello?”Steven said, his voice stammering and cracking. 

 

The pink woman opened one eye, which had enough intensity for Steven to want to turn around. 

 

But there was nowhere to go. 

 

Steven suddenly remembered the last thing that happened to him. He blacked out after feeling a sharp pain in his temple. Now he was floating in a pink room. 

 

“Can I help you?” the woman asked, annoyed. 

 

“I’m, um, well, I’m Steven Universe and I think something hit me on the head and now I’m here.” 

 

“Steven Universe?” The woman opened two eyes. Her brow crinkled. “Steven Universe?” 

 

“Uh, yeah.” 

 

Then she erupted into a crippling laugher. “Steven Universe? Humans certainly have gotten more creative with their surnames.” 

 

“Are you a gem?” Steven asked. 

 

The pink woman rolled her eyes and said, “I’m not merely a gem.” She smirked. “I’m a diamond.” 

 

Steven’s eyes widened. “You’re Pink Diamond?” 

 

She nodded. 

 

“But, but I thought you were-were--” 

 

“Shattered?” She tilted her head at him. 

 

Steven nodded. 

 

“I thought you would have known that I’m shattered.” 

 

“What do you mean?” Steven asked. 

 

“I mean, how else would you have gotten in here?” Pink Diamond asked. 

 

“I don’t know where I am,” Steven said. 

 

“You don’t?” 

 

“No,” Steven said. “I was standing next to my friend Connie in the Alpha Kindergarten, White Diamond’s ship had landed, she was talking to Pearl, and then suddenly something hit me on the head and....dreams! You must be dreaming! You’re shattered, but you are still in pieces, so that means you can dream.” 

 

Pink Diamond looked at him, confused. “I don’t know what a ‘dream’ is.” 

 

“It’s when you’re asleep and your unconscious starts to project things like movies.” 

 

“A movie?” Pink Diamond crinkled her nose. She had no idea what a movie was. “I assure you I am shattered.” She closed her eyes again as if she was ignoring an intense pain. “You can travel like she could.” 

 

“Like who could?” Steven asked. 

 

“Rose Quartz the Traitor,” Pink Diamond said. “She could talk to other gems when they were inside their gems or when they were in a meditative state.” 

 

“Is that why you’re meditating?” Steven asked. 

 

“Ha,” Pink Diamond let out a half-laugh. “Yeah right. That’s not why. Like I would want to talk to Rose quartz again.” She hummed to herself and then muttered. “I’m ignoring the pain by focusing on other...things.” 

 

“The pain of being shattered?” Steven asked. This was horrible to think of. Steven could not imagine the pain of having your body crushed into thousands of shards. 

 

Pink Diamond nodded. 

 

Steven could feel his eyes welling up. “I-I’m sorry that my mom, that my mom shattered you.” 

 

Pink Diamond cleared her throat. “Your mom? Your mom isn’t a human, is she?” 

 

“She’s Rose Quartz,” Steven said. “I’m sorry she did this to you.” Steven sniffled. 

 

Pink Diamond’s mouth parted open slightly. “Rose Quartz didn’t shatter me.” 

 

“What?!” Steven asked. “What do you mean? That’s-that’s what everyone’s been telling me!”

 

“She didn’t shatter me,” Pink Diamond said. She sighed and then said, “Ugh, that’s what they all think, don’t they?” She shook her head, biting down on her bottom lip. “No. That’s not what happened.” 

 

“Who shattered you?” Steven asked. 

 

“My sister. White Diamond,” Pink Diamond said. She rubbed her temples. “My stars, White Diamond probably reprogrammed her pearl to think that Rose Quartz shattered me so White Diamond could show the record to the courts. She wanted to take Earth from me. Why, I don’t know. It’s not like it’s a particularly valuable planet.”

 

“Her pearl?” Steven asked. 

 

“Pearls record everything. They can replay any moment they have seen through the projected holograms on their gem,” Pink Diamond said. “Usually their record is set in stone, that is unless you reprogram her.” 

 

“How do you reprogram her?” Steven asked. 

 

“Fusion,” Pink Diamond said. “It’s quite difficult to do, but you can fuse with her, mess with her memories. Like I said, very difficult. You need to have a connection with her for it to work, to exploit her weaknesses. Usually, at most, you can alter only one memory. It takes every photon of your light to do it ” Pink Diamond said. “Drains all your energy. But it keeps them brainwashed. You can do no wrong if nobody remembers your errors. It’s an utterly despicable practice.” 

 

Steven’s mouth dropped. “But-but, Pearl hasn’t see White Diamond since, since-- I don't even know when.” 

 

“That day on the battlefield. The day I was-well...” Pink Diamond said, raising one eyebrow. “Somehow White Diamond got to that Pearl and they fused. Somehow she altered the memory. It’s not lost though. The Pearl still has the truth in her.”

 

Steven looked down at his floating feet. “Pearl wouldn’t have fused with White Diamond though.” 

 

Pink Diamond closed her eyes. “Ask the Pearl. Jog her memory.” 

 

“Pearl doesn’t talk about...you.” 

 

“Because she’s confused. Because she was probably forced into a fusion,” Pink Diamond said. She sighed and said, “Like I am right now.” 

 

Steven’s eyes widened in disgust. “You’re fused right now?” 

 

Pink Diamond nodded. “With thousands of other gems.” 

 

Was he in the Cluster?

 

“Where is--” 

 

“Everyone else?” Pink Diamond asked. 

 

Steven nodded. He swallowed hard, gulping in terror and disgust. 

 

“After being fused for thousands of years, we’ve given each other space. Some of us are angry, understandably. I, on the other hand, choose to ignore the hurt. This cluster started as a way to repair me. It's become an uncontrollable mess. A weapon greater than anything the Diamonds have created before. My sisters tell themselves this is to save me, but only if they knew how I felt.” 

 

“Wait!” Steven said. 

 

Pink Diamond shuddered. “Please don’t yell.” 

 

“The Diamonds are trying to blow up Earth by forcing the cluster to take a form. You guys can’t do that! You have to stop everyone else.” 

 

“Pfff,” Pink Diamond shook her head. “Thousands of shattered gems have been trapped here for thousands of years. They’re itching to become a form. You think we’re suddenly gonna kiss and make-up, and stay in this jagged rock monstrosity for the good of Earth?” 

 

“Earth is your planet,” Steven said. 

 

“This isn’t my fault,” Pink Diamond said. “I’d rather be shattered, alone, right now, than shattered and fused together. Either way I am in pain.” 

 

“I’m sorry you are in pain,” Steven said. 

 

A tear shed from Pink Diamond’s eye. She kept her calm demeanor. “There was a time when I was careless. When I chose to not try and understand other beings on a--a-‘human,’ level. I was wrong, I know that. I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. But, Steven, when a gem is alone in her gem, it’s her unnatural state. They cannot stay like this unless you stop us from taking a form.” 

 

“How can I do that?” Steven asked. 

 

“Melt us,” Pink Diamond said. “We are in pain. We are beyond help. Once we are melted, we will no longer be gems. We will no longer be shards in pieces. We will cease to exist. We become glass.” 

 

“I-I can’t destroy you,” Steven said. 

 

“Your mother couldn’t either,” Pink Diamond said. "She wanted to use her plants instead." 

 

 

* * *

 

Steven suddenly felt his forehead throbbing. 

 

“Steven!” a voice yelled. A hand was holding something to his head. He blinked a couple times and refocused. Pearl and Connie were staring down at him. 

 

The earth rumbled. 


	15. Poofed

 

Pearl stood over Steven. His eyes were closed, but they were fluttering, like he was trying to blink, but couldn't open his eyes. She snapped her fingers in front of his face. She had seen this on Steven's television before in a movie. But it didn't work. Pearl gently tapped the sides of his cheeks, but he still wouldn't wake up.

 

"Lapis!" Pearl said. "Find some water to throw on his face!"

 

Lapis nodded with wide, concerned eyes. "You got it." She waved her hand. Some water from a puddle swept up into the air and landed on Steven's face.

 

He still didn't open his eyes.

 

"How does one wake a human up when they're like this?" Pearl said with panic.

 

"We can't wake him up," Garnet said. "He can only wake himself up."

 

"He's unconscious," Connie said. "He has to wake up on his own. Basically his brain is rebooting. I hope he doesn't have any internal bleeding."

 

"Like he poofed?!" Amethyst asked.

 

"I guess you could put it that way," Connie said. "We really need to get him to a hospital."

 

"A rock poofed him?" Peridot asked. She began to giggle for a second.

 

"What's so funny?" Amethyst asked, annoyed.

 

"We're rocks," Peridot said. She laughed again for a second, but then suddenly became serious. "However, I sincerely hope nothing has cause his exterior to crack."

 

Pearl kneeled besides Steven and pushed his hair away from his face. A small cut was bleeding down his forehead. She took out a medical kit from her gem and began wrapping up his head.

 

White Diamond made slow, small steps toward the Crystal Gems. "Is-is Tiny Rose really a human?"

 

"Of course he is," Pearl said. "And he's not Rose. He's Steven."

 

"Someone needs to help me take him back to the beach house," Connie said.

 

Then the ground shook again.

 

"I don't think the beach house is going to be around much longer," Amethyst said.

 

"It wont if we don't do anything," Garnet said. She rested her hand on her chin in contemplation.

 

"He's the only one who can bubble the cluster!" Peridot said.

 

"I can bubble the cluster," White Diamond said. White Diamond stepped forward onto the steel floor of the old Diamond Authority base.  Just as she was about to press the button to go down, into the center of the Earth, Steven opened his eyes.

 

"Steven!" Pearl yelled as she saw the warm, brown pupils staring back at her. He had Rose's eyes, she thought.

 

"Pearl?" he said. His voice was weak. His eyes focused to Connie. He smiled and said, "You guys waited here for me?"

 

"Of course we did!" Connie said.

 

"Like we didn't know if you were dead or not," Amethyst said, then added with sarcasm, "Pearl apparently didn't check that page of the anatomy book." 

 

Pearl shot Amethyst a disapproving look.

 

Suddenly Steven blurted out, "My mom didn't shatter Pink Diamond!""

 

"Did Steven just drop a freakin' truth bomb to end all truth bombs?" Amethyst asked.

 

"He did," Garnet said.

 

Pearl closed her eyes like she was experiencing the pain of thousands of needles penetrating her skin. She shook her head and whispered, "Steven, I saw everything."

 

"You did," Steven said. "But you're mis-remembering."

 

"How could I possibly forget what happened that day?" Pearl said with anger.

 

"White Diamond fused with you," Steven said. "She changed the memory."

 

Pearl's head jerked to the left, so she could see behind her shoulder. "Fusion?!" she calmed herself for a moment and asked, "Are you sure, Steven?"

 

"I can see dreams," Steven said. "I met Pink Diamond and she said White Diamond shattered her. I believe her."

 

"Is this true?" Pearl asked. She stood up and began to walk toward White Diamond.

 

White Diamond began to stutter. "You wouldn't understand."

 

"Understand that you were manipulating my memories?" Pearl said.

 

"You don't understand," White Diamond said. "I had to do it!"

 

"Had to?" Pearl said. "You never have to shatter another gem! You never have to alter another gem's - my - memory!"

 

"Pearl," White Diamond said. "Please listen to what happened."

 

Before Pearl could state her further discontent, a large yellow ship shaped like a hand landed on top of the canyon. Wind ruffled Pearl's hair.

 

"Yellow Diamond," Peridot stated with gloom.

 

The door to the ship opened. Among the smoke from the cold, ice from the stark, low temperature of space, Yellow Diamond, Blue Diamond, and both their Pearls emerged from the ship.

 

"Sister," Yellow Diamond said. "It's time to end this nonsense."

 

"Leaving them all alone wouldn't be the worst thing in the Universe!" White Diamond said.

 

"Your affection towards your Pearl is ruining the entire power balance of the galaxy! Get your shit together!" Yellow Diamond said.

 

"It's nothing. They are barely a threat," White Diamond said. "They're a gem-human hybrid, a fusion, a defective Pearl, a Peridot with no limb extenders and a depressed Lapis Lazuli! What harm could they actually do? None. That's the reason we should just bubble the cluster and never bother Earth again."

 

"It's like she's forgotten," Blue Diamond said. Her voice whined with solemn regret.

 

"Our Sister is in that cluster!" Yellow Diamond said. "Have you forgotten?"

 

The other gems gasped, not knowing the truth of why the cluster was created; to repair Pink Diamond.

 

"I have not!" White Diamond said.

 

"You can make a choice, now," Yellow Diamond said. "You can save our sister or you can help your defective, annoying, useless Pearl."

 

White Diamond contemplated what to do. Her brow furrowed. When Pearl saw the indecision on her former captor's face, she almost spoke up. But she stayed silent, instead holding Steven's hand harder.

 

"I'm sorry," White Diamond said. She then held out her hand for her sisters' to take. The three Diamonds held each others' left hand all at once. Their bodies glowed, fusing into a larger, green Diamond. Green Diamond held her hand up. She waved, using White Diamond's light powers to dissipate all the gems who used light to create their forms.

 

Steven felt his body turn into mush. Then he realized, that he was fusing with Pearl. Before Green Diamond used White Diamond's light powers, he was holding Pearl's hand.

 

He felt different. It was like a dark weight was on his chest. Pearl must be anxious. He could see Connie below him. The rest of the gems had poofed and were just gems on the ground.

 

Then he realized was Rainbow Quartz. This was how they always felt. They couldn't see themselves, but their hair felt short and wavy. They wore a loos-fitting rainbow leotard with baggy shorts.

 

Rainbow Quartz picked Connie up by the fabric of the human's shirt and tucked her into an old hole in the bedrock that was used to gestate gems thousands of years ago.

 

"Do you think you're better than me, human?" Green Diamond said. Her voice hissed.

 

"We can't break apart," Rainbow Quartz said to herself.

 

"I know," Rainbow Quartz said. "I'm-we're organic."

 

Rainbow Quartz then assembled their weapon out of Steven's shield and Pearl's spear into a battle axe. They twirled the weapon in their hands.

 

* * *

 

 

To the outside world, Rainbow Quartz was a stable fusion. Inside the fusion realm, Steven found Pearl sitting on the ground, surrounded by multicolored lights. Holo-Pearls surrounded her, each playing a string instrument. Pearl grabbed her sides. Her eyes were closed.

 

"Pearl?" Steven asked. "Are you oka--"

 

"Fine!" Pearl said. "I'm fine."

 

"I'm here, you know. It's okay I'm not going to judge you for--"

 

"That's not it, Steven," Pearl said. "I don't want to be okay with it. I don't want to confront the memory. It's too painful. So this is what I do instead. "

 

"Pearl," Steven said. "We can't defeat the Diamonds like this. We can't fight them and stay fused if we're like this. We have to find out what happened to Pink Diamond."

 

"Rainbow Quartz can't defeat the Diamonds," Pearl said.

 

* * *

 

Rainbow Quartz flashed as they ran toward Green Diamond. They fell to their knees. Green Diamond took out her weapon, a kama.The weapon consisted of two dual sickles for each hand.

 

"Keep it together, Pearl," Rainbow Quartz said. They got up and swung the battle axe at Green Diamond. Green Diamond caught the axe in her kama. The two sickle ends of the weapon met with the stem of the axe, cutting off the axe's head.

 

"Why aren't you using your sword, Pearl?" Green Diamond asked. She let out a short, spiteful laugh. "You practice for centuries just to be remotely competent with it."

 

To Green Diamond's surprise, Rainbow Quartz ran away from the fight.

 

* * *

 

 

"We can't run forver, Pearl!" Steven said. He looked down at Pearl who was curled up on the floor of their fusion realm.

 

"Steven, please just let me be! We need to get you safe and out of here!"

 

"When the cluster's form emerges from the gem, the Earth will be destroyed and there will be no place for me to be safe!"

 

Pearl's eyes crinkled closed. "I know what happened, Steven."

 

"Then tell me!," Steven said. "We have to be stabilized! The others are all poofed! Connie is hiding in a crevice. The Earth is rumbling."

 

"I had to fuse with you so you and Connie wouldn't be left alone with her," Pearl said. "Mission accomplished. "Please, let me get you somewhere safe so--"

 

"Where is there a safe place?!" Steven asked. His arms were waving in the air. "Pearl, we need to stop the Diamonds!"

 

"Fine!" Pearl said. "I'll tell you what the memory was. I found it. The true one." A hologram of light emitted from Pearl's gem. The hologram projection showed Pearl running.

 

_Pearl sprinted through the strawberry fields, dodging the attacks of jaspers and amethysts. She searched for Rose with high alert. If Rose got poofed, then there would be nobody to use healing tears for the other Gems. Pearl didn’t want her zest for protecting Rose to look as if she were bordering on obsession, but this was necessary._

 

_It was simple logic. She couldn’t heal others and therefore was not as important as Rose._

 

_Pearl, looking away, stupidly ran into a large leg and fell flat on the ground. She peered up and saw White Diamond. Pearl drew her weapon from her gem as her sword was nowhere to be seen._

 

_“I think I underestimated you,” White Diamond said, smirking as if this was the most amusing thing she had ever seen. “You can summon a weapon now.”_

 

_Pearl jumped to her feet. “I’ll...I’ll shatter you,” she stammered._

 

_“My Pearl, you would never shatter me,” White Diamond said. “You care about me too much. It’s the same reason I wont shatter you.” She knelt down._

 

_Pearl stood her ground, but remained in a defensive stance instead of attacking._

 

_“I didn’t come here to fight,” White Diamond said. “I came here to get you before...”_

 

_“Before what?” Pearl yelled._

 

_“I couldn’t explain it. Only that you need to leave Earth. Soon it wont be safe here anymore. Please, let’s just go home and forget about this. I’ll open the doors for the next thousand years if you come back. Please. You know I could not care less about this whole thing.”_

 

_“You’re the reason why we’re here!” Pearl said, “If you only had let Rose protect Earth.”_

 

_“Pearl, we both know I’m not going to go against my sister,” White Diamond began to tear up. “I can’t let you stay here.” She shook her head, “You’re all in terrible danger. Come back to Homeworld with me so I can protect you again.” She offered her hand to Pearl, who ignored the act of forgiveness. “I care for you, Pearl. I care for you more than any other gem,” White Diamond shed a tear. “I miss you.”_

 

_Pearl looked around and saw Pink Diamond cornering Rose against a large rock formation._

 

_She closed her eyes and said, “I will go back with you on one condition.”_

 

_“And that is?”_

 

_“Tell Pink Diamond to give up the planet to Rose and the humans.”_

 

_“And take away her first conquest? Do you know how that will ruin her confidence?”_

 

_“I mean it.”_

 

_White Diamond tilted her head to the side. “I’ll go and draw up a Peace Treaty. After this battle, this Hundreds Years War is over.”_

 

_Before White Diamond could board her ship. Pearl saw Rose getting repeatedly kicked by Pink Diamond. Rose was unable to summon her shield. Pink Diamond then squished her with her foot, attempting to shatter Rose’s gem by the pressure._

 

_"Take the quartz prisoner," White Diamond said. "Her Pearl said they would agree to a treaty."  
_

 

_"A treaty?!" Rose said as she struggled to push Pink Diamond's foot away from her face._

 

_"Pearl has surrendered herself in exchange for the freedom of this planet," White Diamond said. She snapped her fingers. Hand-cuffs made of light were now bounding Pearl's hands and feet._

 

_"Pearl does not agree to that!" Rose said._

 

_"She just did," White Diamond said. "You decided to let a Pearl speak for herself and this is what you get for it. Now can we all please go back to Pink's ship to draw up the official paperwork?"_

 

_"I'm not signing anything!" Rose said. Her voice barked. Her throat was dry and hoarse._

 

_"I'm not giving up this planet!" Pink Diamond said. Her foot started to crush Rose's head._

 

_'Enough!" White Diamond said. She waved her hand toward Rose and Pink Diamond. A wave of light went through Rose, poofing her._

 

_White Diamond walked over to the scene and picked up Rose's gem from the ground. "Shall we?"_

 

_Back at Pink Diamond's palanquin, White Diamond wrote up a contract, which Pearl and White Diamond signed. The hologram floated mid air, waiting to be signed and initialed by Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond._

 

_"How long does she take to reform?" White Diamond asked._

 

_Pearl shrugged. She stared down at the ground.  
_

 

_"You can't just take over my entire operation!" Pink Diamond said, sitting in her palanquin. Her pearl stood by her feet. Pink's Pearl chin was up in the air, mimicking the regality of her perfect posture. "I do not agree to this. I'm not tarnishing my legacy just so you can get some defective Pearl back."_

 

_'You wouldn't understand," White Diamond said._

 

_"My pearl is my best friend. I understand. But even then, you don't trade planets for Pearls," Pink Diamond said."That would be like freaking ridiculous."  
_

 

_Pearl looked up at the two much taller gems. She glanced down at the handcuffs and wondered if there was a way she could get out of them. She agreed to this only because she thought it would be easy. But now she was worried what would happen to Rose when she reformed. Pearl knew one way to get out of the handcuffs was to poof, but that wasn't an option._

 

_That was when she saw the hologram of the contract. Pearl had the ability to create holograms of light from her gem. She closed her eyes and focused on a projection of herself, spear included to emit from her gem._

 

_"What is that?" Pink Diamond asked at the sight of the holo-Pearl._

 

_The Holo-Pearl lept into the air to strike down White Diamond. With the Diamonds distracted, Pearl ran toward Rose's gem in front of the palanquin._

 

_But before she could get there, someone had picked her up by the sheer fabric of her form. A giant, pink hand squeezed Pearl, holding her up in the air eye level.  
_

 

_"Who do you think you are?" Pink Diamond asked. She squeezed harder._

 

_Pearl tried to squirm free, but the grip tightened around her. She could feel her light about to retract into her gem. Then she poofed._

 

_Pearl woke up on the ground. She had reformed as quick as she could. She looked up and saw White Diamond striking Pink Diamond with Rose's sword. Pearl heard a loud, haunting shriek, then the sound of something shattering. Wind blew into her face. Small fragments of gem hit her forehead._

 

_Then Rose reformed. Her face was in utter shock at the amount of pink gem fragments everywhere. "Pearl?" Rose yelled._

 

_"Rose!" Pearl said. She reached out her hand toward her partner, grasping her hand._

 

_"We need to run. Now," Rose said. They ran to the top of a hill overlooking the Strawberry Fields. Pearl...” Rose said. She was panting, tired. They were both kneeling. Pearl did not remember it this way. She remembered it more eloquent, more poetic. But in reality, they were both sweaty and tired. Their hair was ruffled, their legs were tired, and their bodies were bruised. Rose embraced Pearl, inhaling the scent of her hair deeply.  
_

 

_“Yes?”_

 

_“I’m going to stay and fight for this planet. You don’t have to do this with me. I understand if you want to go back. There's a very small chance we will succeed.”  
_

 

_“But I want to.”_

 

_“I know you do. Please, please understand if we lose, we’ll be killed and if we win, we can never go home.”_

 

_“But why would I ever want to go home when you’re here?”_

 

_Rose laughed. It was short and sweet, like she knew there was no other way Pearl would have answered.  “My Pearl. You’re wonderful.”_

 

_"I'll only ever be your Pearl," Pearl said. "Because you don't see me as one."_

 

_Theyw ere silent for a moment, waiting for White Diamond to find them._

 

_"Why hasn't she come for us?" Pearl asked._

 

_"Did she really do it?' Rose asked. Her eyes were worried and tired. She looked haunted. "Did she really shatter Pink Diamond?"_

 

_Pearl closed her eyes. "Yes."  She looked around and said, "We need to move."_

 

_They ran towards camp, hoping no one could see them from the skies. As they approached the meadow, Pearl heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw White Diamond._

 

_"We had a contract," White Diamond said._

 

_"Which I never signed," Rose said. "She's not mine to give to you."_

 

_White Diamond set her hand on Pearl's shoulder, forcing her to turn around.  "I'll give you a head start on one condition."_

 

_"Head start?" Rose asked._

 

_"I'll let you go. I'll go back to to the base. I'll tell them I lost you. You can relocate the Crystal Gems' headquarters."_

 

_"What's the condition?" Rose asked._

 

_"You allow me to correct the incident my Pearl witnessed," White Diamond said._

 

_"Forget it," Rose said. "You can shatter me before you fuse with her!"_

 

_"Calm down," White Diamond said. "It's not like I haven't fused with her before."_

 

_Pearl looked back at Rose. Rose was pleading her to not do it. "Don't, Pearl!"_

 

"I danced toward her. That's all I remember," Pearl said. "My memory was altered."

 

"She shouldn't have done that," Steven said.

 

"She would have shattered Rose," Pearl said.

 

Steven kneeled down next to Pearl and rested his hand on her arm. It felt comforting. Pearl's heart wanted to melt.

 

"We have to stop her," Pearl said.

 

"My Mom was trying to use plants," Steven said.

 

"She wanted to bury them - the Diamonds - into the ground," Pearl said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
